WASHINGTON -- The Concord Coalition said that today’s release of the annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report is a timely reminder of how important cost-saving reform of these two vital programs is to the nation’s fiscal outlook. Concord urged lawmakers now deliberating long-term...
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Blog Posts on social security
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Sunday, October 23, 2011 - 11:00 PMLast week, AARP doubled-down on its insistence that Social Security and Medicare benefits should be off the table in negotiations to stabilize the nation’s debt. It did so in a letter to members of the deficit reduction “super committee” and in response to a Concord Coalition statement criticizing AARP’s new ad campaign, which warns that 50... Read More
Social Security
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Social Security, established in 1935, is the federal government’s largest program. It represents approximately one-fifth of the federal budget and provides retirement, disability and survivors' benefits to over 50 million Americans. Retirement benefits are distributed in amounts based on lifetime earnings.
The system is funded by a payroll tax of 12.4 percent up to a maximum amount of income ($106,800 in 2010). Half of the tax is paid by employers and half by employees. Nearly all wage-earners in the country pay Social Security taxes, with most of them paying more in Social Security taxes than they do in federal income taxes.