But some Democrats are wary of any change to the payroll tax, which funds the Social Security program.
This would likely be much less expensive than the existing Social Security program, which means that taxes to fund it could be much lower.
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Both step gingerly around changes to the enormously popular Social Security program, which will eventually start to run a deficit as more baby boomers retire.
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They oppose changes in the Social Security program by wide margins.
It does exhaustive searches of all combinations of months in which you can take actions, but thanks to modern computing power and careful programming, our Maximize My Social Security program can run through millions upon millions of combinations of decisions incredibly fast.
Republicans, despite their reputation as the party of smaller government and free markets, share much of the redistibutionist and regulatory ethic of the Democrats, as opposed to proposing obvious but sweeping changes (like outlawing the forcing of newborns into the Social Security program in the America of tomorrow).
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Baxter handled her situation well, says Patricia Owens, a former associate commissioner of the Social Security disability program.
For every 17 people in the labor force, there is now one recipient of Social Security disability program payments.
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The Social Security disability program was created in the 1950s to help Americans who were no longer able to work.
Yokich said Gore was on the UAW's side on the economy, workers' rights, education, the Social Security retirement program and Medicare health care program for the elderly, the environment, and other issues of concern to working families.
But this pension system is ripe for common-sense reforms, including changing eligibility ages and benefit structures for those with greater means, ridding the Social Security disability program of pervasive fraud, and removing disincentives for those who would rather work in their later years.
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With Social Security, the program experienced over a decade of uncertainty.
The sharp deterioration in the job market during the downturn also seems to have affected applications to the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which rose to 2.94 million last year, up from 2.19 million in 2007.
Social Security is perhaps the most popular social benefit program ever devised by Congress.
That is because Social Security is a contributory program that only replaces a floor of wage income in retirement.
Social Security became a transfer program that deterred people from working when they really could as we lived longer.
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The Social Security Administration has a program called Direct Express, a debit card that can be used for purchases and cash withdrawals without a bank account.
Conservatives like to pretend that Social Security is an extravagant welfare program so even these pitiful rates of return are inexcusably high.
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OK, but how should conservatives reform the Social Security Disability (SSD) program, which is clearly being used as an early retirement program by many people who could work?
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Conservatives need to recognize that Social Security will remain a defined benefit program for the foreseeable future.
The Social Security Administration has set up a program to let some applicants jump to the front of the line.
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Social Security was supposed to be a program where workers earn their benefits by paying for them during working years.
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So I ask you to support, No. 1, an economic program that saves Social Security first, and don't fool with this balanced budget until we actually achieve it, and that we ought to look at the black ink just for a day or two before we start giving it away...
Obama, for his part, says the deficit plan he offered last Septe mber is similar to Simpson Bowles in its mix of tax increases and spending hikes, but his plan failed to tackle the Social Security changes needed to make that program sound over the long term and made only modest changes to Medicare.
For decades, policy wonks on the Republican fringes had talked about turning Social Security, the government safety-net program for retirees, into a system of private investment accounts.
The borrowing limit thus acts like the trust fund balance in Medicare Part A or Social Security, except that it allows the program to go a fixed amount into the red.
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Mr. Santorum criticized Mr. Gingrich for advocating private investment accounts in Social Security, saying that would undermine the program's solvency, and attacked Mr. Romney for failing to offer deeper, more immediate plans.
The Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll comes as politicians face growing pressure to curb record federal deficits, and budget hawks of both parties have expressed a willingness to scale back Social Security, the government's biggest program.
The retirement program set up by the Social Security Act of 1935 was modest.
Generally, older folks fare better due to the tax increases over the years (the Social Security tax was just 1% when the program started).
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