Social Security
October 24, 2025 — Bill Glahn
Last evening, the U.S. Senate adjourned until Monday, guaranteeing that the federal government “shutdown” will extend for a full four weeks. Before they left town, Senators confirmed the fifth federal judge this month, with two more teed up for Monday evening when they return. For his part, Pres. Trump will be off to Asia this weekend. The Hill newspaper reports, President Trump on Friday will travel to Asia for his
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April 16, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden returned to the public stage yesterday evening with a rousing defense of Social Security before a friendly audience in Chicago. Is Social Security under attack? I must have missed the Democrat advertisements of Republicans pushing the wheelchair-bound Grandma over the cliff. Perhaps Biden’s speech was a preview of coming attractions. The Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles reports on Biden’s speech in The Geezer Is Back: Biden Says ‘Roughly
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March 31, 2025 — Scott Johnson
In the video below Elon Musk introduces his colleague Antonio Gracias — profiled here by the Times earlier this month — to talk about what he has discovered inside the Social Security Administration. This is the transcript included in the X post: GRACIAS: “In 2021, 270,000 non-citizens got social security numbers. In 2024, 2.1M non-citizens got social security numbers. We went in to find fraud and found this by accident.
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January 6, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday President Biden signed a bipartisan bill increasing Social Security benefits for some 3,000,000 public employees — the so-called Social Security Fairness Act. The bill provides for teachers, firefighters, policeman and other public sector workers who also receive pension income to receive increases in their Social Security benefits. More here and here. Why is this a good idea? I don’t know. Biden hung around after the signing ceremony to respond
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November 13, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday I got a fundraising email from the Democrats attacking “extreme” Republicans for trying to ban abortion and slash Social Security and Medicare benefits. Abortion I get: the Democrats will ride that weirdly popular horse as far as it will take them. But Social Security and Medicare? What on Earth are they talking about? That question was answered by today’s email from Stephen Moore and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
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March 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
If you haven’t been following the news from France, that country is being roiled by President Macron’s attempt to reform the pension system. The current age of eligibility for government pensions is 62, the lowest in Europe, and Macron wants to raise it to 64. This London Times article is as good a place as any to catch up with what is happening: An increasingly violent and radical protest movement
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October 5, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
When conservatives attack the Democrats’ attempt to pass an enormous reconciliation package, we focus on the cost and the left-wing agenda items the Dems are imposing, some of which have little to do with what is properly the subject of budget reconciliation. These are valid attacks and they resonate not just with strong conservatives, but also with those on the center-right. When Joe Manchin criticizes the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package,
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December 24, 2015 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times headlines an article by Eduardo Porter: “An Aging Society Changes the Story on Poverty for Retirees.” The American Interest hails the article as evidence that the Times is finally acknowledging reality with regard to public retirement benefits: In this story, NYT is facing what everybody knows: The retirement systems of the 20th century won’t work in the 21st. U.S. retirees will see declining social security payments
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November 5, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
I have heard several Republican presidential candidates, including Ted Cruz, publicly wish that the GOP would fight as hard for conservative principles as President Obama fights for radical leftist ones. It’s a good thought, but I wonder whether those expressing it realize the full implications. One crucial way that Obama fought for his radical leftist principles was to conceal them when running for president. For example, he didn’t support gay
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May 6, 2015 — John Hinderaker
When asked what I think of the Republican presidential field, I have said–until now–that I like everyone in it, in various ways. That changed yesterday when Mike Huckabee threw his hat into the ring. A reader expresses my view of Huck: The Huckster is a left populist. It’s just pro-life statism. Particularly appalling, as this reader points out, were Huckabee’s promises on Social Security and Medicare: This is outright left-wing
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March 28, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Every day, it seems, there are signs of the Democrats’ increasing desperation. They obviously don’t like what they see in the polls and are worried about November. But what to do about it? It would be hard to ratchet up their customary hysteria much higher, so they are reaching deeper into their bag of tricks. One of which–everything old is new again!–is demagoguing Social Security. It is a tried and
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October 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Can Kicks Back is a web site, and a campaign, run by a group of millenials. The group has embarked on a national tour in support of generational equity, which is described here. This video provides a quick introduction: [jwplayer file=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEonYDpns6I”] The group’s theme is generational equity: young people are being shafted by the Obama administration and everyone else in Washington who refuses to do anything about the federal
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April 5, 2013 — John Hinderaker
A friend who has been on this particular case for a long time writes: Yet another NOW they tell us moment: President Obama had Senate Republicans nodding in agreement during a recent ice-breaking dinner as he described a basic problem for the nation’s fiscal future: For each dollar that Americans pay for Medicare, they ultimately draw about $3 in benefits. What’s more, he added, most people do not understand that.
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March 6, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Earlier this evening, Paul suggested that Republicans should be open to a “grand bargain” as long as it includes significant entitlement reform. In principle, I don’t disagree. But is there any realistic possibility that the Democrats will agree to entitlement reform? One might think so, since everyone acknowledges that the current regime is unsustainable, and if entitlements are not reformed they either will be repealed, or our economy and our
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January 22, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Liberals are feeling triumphant these days, but in the backs of their minds there must be a sense of foreboding. They won this year by demonizing Republicans and by bribing various demographic groups with government largesse. But the Left’s tactical victory can’t conceal the fact that its ideology is bankrupt. The left’s real enemy isn’t Republicans, it is arithmetic. Welfare states are collapsing all around the world. Ours is on
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January 2, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Higher taxes on the “rich” have dominated discussion of the McConnell-Biden deal, but it has also been widely reported that the legislation will raise taxes on more than 77% of all U.S. households. In fact, the Tax Policy Center has calculated that 46% of the additional taxes raised in 2013 will come from the bottom 80% of Americans. So why haven’t we been hearing more about this? The tax that
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December 12, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama’s goal in the fiscal cliff negotiations seems clear. He wants to force the Republicans to swallow increases in the tax rates of high-earners and thereby bring in at least one trillion dollars in revenue. Alternatively, if the Republicans won’t swallow rate increases for the “wealthy,” he wants to see everyone’s taxes go up and be able to blame Republicans for it. The Republican goal also seems clear. They
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