Fighting for Social Security – Your Help is Needed!

We Baby Boomers are powerful.  At some 70 million strong, we have a lot of clout.  And we may need it in the coming years, if “entitlement reform” (euphemism for cutting Social Security benefits) starts rolling.

President Obama has committed to “entitlement reform” as a way to save the younger generations from having to pay for our Social Security benefits.  But the market crash has already taken away our other savings.  Why take our Social Security too?

I read an excellent blog post on Time Goes By recently.  The author, Ronni Bennett, warns us that it won’t be long until we will need to speak up.  We have lost our 401k savings, our homes are worth less, and we can’t even find a place to park our savings to get a decent return.

And now they want to cut Social Security.  The first cut will be to take off the maximum earnings cap.  Since the cap is currently $106,800, only wealthier individuals will be affected.  But if the caps on benefits are also increased, there won’t be much savings from that.  Next, the “full retirement” age will be increased.  That will mean reduced benefits for most of us, unless we wait longer to start taking Social Security.

I figure the third step will be further cuts in benefits over the next few years, until inflation will take away a substantial part of our benefits, and we’ll all have to hope our 401k’s bounce back.

If you want to learn more about this issue, read Ronni’s excellent post on Time Goes By, and also read the article by James Galbraith at Washington Monthly.  And get ready to fight… the time will come.