Update [2005-4-26 8:45:27 by susanhbu]: John Kerry is speaking right now.
The Senate Finance Committee is conducting major hearings this morning on Social Security reform. Watch the hearings live at CSPAN.org. Insight on the plans below:
ThinkProgress will be providing live updates throughout:
Will private accounts blunt the pain of benefit cuts?
“It’s like trying to get your kid to eat spinach by offering a turnip for dessert.” – Peter Orszag, 4/26/05
From an update on ThinkProgress:
Each of the proposals we will be discussing today achieves the goal of sustainable solvency.
Not quite. Let’s review –
Pozen plan: Would only eliminate half of the long-term Social Security shortfall through massive benefit cuts for the middle class.
Ferrara plan: Transfers $68 trillion over 75 years from general revenues. Since the government is already running a deficit, this money would have to be borrowed.
Tanner plan: Achieves solvency only by completely dismantling the retirement portion of Social Security.
Posted by Judd at 10:25 am
__________________________________
Peter Ferrara, 4/26/05:
The chief actuary of Social Security has scored this [the Ferrara plan] as achieving full and permanent solvency.
Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/22/03:
The claimed “seal of approval” that the actuaries are said to have placed on the plan turns out to be nothing more than a finding on the part of the actuaries that given all of the specifications Mr. Ferrara directed them to use – including the specification of extremely large general revenue transfers [$68 trillion] – the plan would restore long-term Social Security solvency. This should not be regarded as a breakthrough or a notable accomplishment. Virtually any plan that assumes general revenue transfers equal to nearly twice the Social Security shortfall should be able, on paper, to restore long-term solvency to the program. In other words, the Ferrara plan achieves its goals through an enormous “magic asterisk.”