Budget Battles
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House Passes Stopgap Funding Fix, Averting Government Shutdown
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Republicans Sue to Stop Biden Student Loan Plan
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Why Medicare Premiums Are Going Down
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Manchin Throws in the Towel as Shutdown Deadline Looms
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$46 Billion in Pandemic Unemployment Fraud — and Counting
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Privatize Social Security? Some Republicans Keep Talking About It
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More Pain Ahead as Fed Delivers Another Jumbo Rate Hike
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McCarthy Rolls Out a Republican Agenda
By Michael RaineyHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-CA) on Friday unveiled a conservative populist agenda ahead of the midterm elections, giving voters a sense of what Republicans hope to accomplish if they can...
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Some Republicans Keep Floating Social Security and Medicare Privatization
Politico’s Natalie Allison reports that some Republicans keep floating the idea of privatizing Social Security and Medicare, despite the political perils involved in raising the idea — and despite...
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Social Security Benefits Headed for Biggest Bump in 40 Years
With inflation running at an 8.3% annual rate as of August, Social Security beneficiaries are set to receive the largest cost-of-living adjustment in four decades. Based on government data released...
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As Social Security Turns 87, Democrats Warn GOP Wants to ‘Put It on the Chopping Block’
By The Fiscal Times StaffPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, and Democratic leaders on Monday celebrated the 87th anniversary of that monumental event – while warning...
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Social Security Benefits Set for a Huge Boost in 2023: Analysis
Social Security’s annual cost of living adjustment for 2023 will be the highest in four decades, according to projections from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. While benefits this year...
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Rick Scott Drops Tax Hike Plan That Drew Bipartisan Backlash
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida on Thursday revised his proposed agenda for the GOP and ditched language that had called for all Americans to “pay some income tax to have skin in the game.”...
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Save Social Security by Taxing the Rich? Democrats Have a Plan
By Michael RaineyThe Social Security trustees announced last week that the program’s trust fund will be depleted in 2035, at which point benefits would be cut by 20%, assuming Congress does nothing to alter its...
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Forecast for Social Security and Medicare Brightens a Bit, but Time Still Running Out
The financial outlook for Social Security and Medicare improved a bit this year as the result of a stronger-than-expected economic recovery from the Covid pandemic, according to annual reports...
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Biden Says Inflation Is Top Priority, Slams ‘Ultra-MAGA’ GOP
President Joe Biden on Tuesday called inflation “the number one challenge facing families today” and said that addressing rising prices is at the top of his domestic agenda. “I know that families all...
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Dems Look to Score Points Using Rick Scott’s Agenda for the GOP
Back in February, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott released a 11-point policy agenda for the GOP that stirred some controversy by, among other things, calling for all Americans to have some “skin...
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What Trump and Biden Would Mean for Social Security
After years of warnings about the financial challenges facing Social Security, the coronavirus pandemic and its economic effects mean that the time to get serious about ensuring that full benefits...
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Trump’s Payroll Tax Plan Fizzles
President Trump’s payroll tax deferral plan is fizzling. The plan , meant to boost workers’ incomes by allowing their employers to postpone collection of the 6.2% employee share of the tax funding...
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Social Security Trust Fund Depleted by 2031: CBO
By Michael RaineyThe Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance fund will be depleted by 2031, according to a report released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO said the surplus in the fund,...
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Trump’s Payroll Tax Deferral Gets Rolling
By Michael RaineyThe IRS issued guidance late Friday that provides details on President Trump’s executive action to allow employers to stop collecting Social Security taxes for employees starting September 1 through...
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Trump’s Payroll Tax Plan Is Hung Up in a Dispute With the IRS: Report
By Michael RaineyPresident Trump’s effort to suspend employee Social Security taxes starting September 1 is hung up over a dispute over who should be responsible for making the tax payments once the suspension is...