Social Security benefit cuts or higher taxes likely coming
SAN FRANCISCO - Social Security provides a majority of the retirement income for about two-thirds of Americans over age 65, but if you're in your mid-50s or younger, it's time to make alternate arrangements. (click here for full article)

While we slept, Congress looted our Social Security
High Social Security payroll taxes have contributed to yearly Social Security Trust Fund surpluses until the proclaimed surplus is now in excess of $2,420 billion ($2.42 trillion). (click here for full article)

'Income' eats away at Social Security disability checks
The recession is expected to add more people to the Social Security rolls - so many, in fact, that the government said it will pay out more benefits than it will collect in taxes the next two years. (click here for full article)

Seniors wary over Social Security changes
Monroe, NJ - Fixed income seniors may have to pinch their pennies a little tighter next year as experts around the country are projecting cuts in Social Security benefits. (click here for full article)

More charged in Social Security fraud case
MUSKEGON (Michigan) -- Another batch of people have been arraigned for allegedly cashing duplicate Social Security disability checks in the Muskegon area. (click here for full article)

No Social Security COLA is no biggie
"Millions of people face shrinking Social Security checks next year," The Washington Post reported Monday, "as officials project that benefits will stay flat for the first time in a generation." (click here for full article)

Put Congress on Social Security
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.

You see, Social Security benefits are not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They feel they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. (click here for full article)

Health Plans Could Aid, Hinder Efforts To Fund Social Security
While a health care overhaul takes precedence, the Obama administration will eventually tackle the Social Security issue, top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said last week. (click here for full article)

Mountain of debt: Social Security crisis looms
WASHINGTON - As Congress agonizes over health care, an even more daunting and dangerous challenge is bearing down: how to shore up Social Security to keep it from burying the nation ever deeper in debt. (click here for full article)

Retirees rethink Social Security in tough economy
Many Americans are living on the edge these days, and that means more are opting to take Social Security early. The potential consequences for them down the road are troublesome. (click here for full article)

Is Hiding Your Social Security Number Worth It?
Consumers who have spent hours locking up their passports, shredding their billing statements and filing away their tax returns may soon learn they've wasted a great deal of time. Their efforts to shield themselves from identity theft by guarding their Social Security numbers are being undermined by government officials and social networking sites. (click here for full article)

Payback: Making Money Off Social Security
Americans give the government interest-free loans with their salary withholdings. There's a way to turn the tables. (click here for full article)

Continuing a Conversation on Social Security
The rules covering Social Security are so numerous and so complicated that it isn't easy to figure out the optimal time to take benefits. As we recently wrote, this decision is different for each person and depends on a variety of factors: your health, your savings, when you stop working, whether you are married or single, and more. (click here for full article)

Social Security Payments Could Shrink for Some
Because Social Security won't provide a cost-of-living adjustment next year and Medicare Part B premiums likely will rise, some retirees will get smaller checks. (click here for full article)

David Walker Explains Social Security's Future
David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, has made it his mission to call attention to how current spending patterns could hurt future generations. He rails against the budget deficit and speaks out in favor of spending controls. Now, as head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Walker continues to urge politicians to make programs such as Social Security and Medicare sustainable. (click here for full article)

Trustees: Outlook is not good for Social Security, Medicare
You'd have to have been living under a rock to be surprised by the news in May from the Social Security and Medicare trustees that the programs are in trouble. In a nutshell: The U.S. population is aging, health-care costs are spiraling upward and neither program has the money to cover promised benefits. In addition, politicians have known this for many years, and yet no progress has been made in fixing the programs. (click here for full article)

Security trust fund exhausted 4 years sooner than last year's forecast
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The recession has taken its toll on Social Security. The officials who oversee the program forecast May 12 that the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2037 -- four years earlier than estimated last year. (click here for full article)

Recession puts Social Security in spotlight
The financial crisis has cast a shadow over a perennial debate in Washington: How to ensure the long-term financial health of Social Security.

While President Obama has taken on more major issues in his first few months than most presidents, the entitlement program for retirees hasn't made the list. (click here for full article)

Lawmakers Seeking Consensus On Social Security Overhaul
Key lawmakers from both parties have held tentative talks about overhauling the Social Security system, and Congress could turn its attention to the federal retirement program as soon as this fall if a bipartisan consensus emerges, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said May 5.

"I am hopeful. It's a tough issue," Hoyer (D-Md.) said in an interview, adding that he and other lawmakers are still trying to assess whether sufficient support exists to move forward. (click here for full article)

Hoyer Delivers Keynote Address on Entitlement and Health Care Reform
WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered the keynote address at a Bipartisan Policy Center forum, "Unprecedented Federal Debt: Putting Our Fiscal House in Order," hosted by former Senator Pete Domenici at the St. Regis Hotel. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:

"If I were to guess the single most lasting lesson of our economic crisis, and if I were to spell it out in just five words, I would say: this is what debt does." (click here for full article)

Hoyer 'hopeful' on entitlement reform this year
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said May 6 he's "hopeful" that Congress will reform Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid later this year, after lawmakers deal with contentious healthcare reform and energy bills. (click here for full article)

Boost unlikely for Social Security
WASHINGTON - For the first time in more than three decades, Social Security recipients will not get any increase in their benefits next year, federal forecasts show. (click here for full article)

50 million retirees to get $250 checks in May
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 50 million retirees can expect to receive $250 payments from the government in the next few weeks as their share of the economic stimulus package enacted in February. (click here for full article)

Economy May Force Obama to Abandon Plan to Overhaul Immigration
(Bloomberg) -- The long campaign to overhaul U.S. immigration laws may be derailed for yet another year -- this time by the deteriorating economy. (click here for full article)

Sources: Obama to move ahead on immigration reform
(CNN) -- The White House is planning to start addressing the nation's immigration system as early as May, two senior administration officials said April 9. (click here for full article)

Recession Puts a Major Strain On Social Security Trust Fund
As Payroll Tax Revenue Falls, So Does Surplus
The U.S. recession is wreaking havoc on yet another front: the Social Security trust fund. (click here for full article)

One-Time $250 Social Security Payment Due In May
WASHINGTON (AP) - People who collect Social Security or disability benefits will share $13 billion in federal money, each receiving a one-time, $250 payment beginning in May, Vice President Joe Biden said March 26. (click here for full article)

Illegal workers struggling in U.S.
MORRISTOWN, Tennessee: The faithful stand and hold their hands high, raising a crescendo of prayer for abundance and grace. In the evangelical church where they are gathered, the folding chairs are filled with immigrants from Latin America. (click here for full article)

Strengthen Social Security
At this point, we need to confront an elemental truth: No Wall Street rally can obscure the scary historical prospect that most Americans now working can expect to have less income security in retirement than their parents. (click here for full article)

The payoff for waiting to collect Social Security
Readers had two questions about my recent column on taking my Social Security benefits. Most readers wanted to know why I had waited so long several months after my 68th birthday. After all, they argued, it would take years to recoup the benefits I had deferred. (click here for full article)

Amnesty Bill—Worst Provisions
Lou Dobbs discusses the worst Provisions of the new Amnesty Bill. (click here to view the video)

Social Security chief hopeful on system's solvency
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue is hopeful the Obama Administration will address the solvency of the system before the 2012 elections. But in a speech on Monday in St. Louis, Astrue declined to speculate on exactly how the administration plans to fix it... (click here for full article)

Social Security Workers Feeling Strapped
Workers at the Social Security Administration are working harder and enjoying it less, while its customers grow ever more frustrated.

That's a major take-away from a recent Government Accountability Office report detailing the negative impact of SSA staff cuts... (click here for full article)

Bill targets immigrants with fake IDs
JACKSON (AP) - With Mississippi being the site of the nation's largest workplace raid on undocumented workers, lawmakers are trying to crack down on illegal immigrants who obtain false identification for employment.

A bill passed in the Senate and now headed to the House would enhance the penalties for illegal immigrants who create or use false ID... (click here for full article)

Recession slows illegal border crossings from Mexico
VILLA JUÁREZ, Mexico - At 21, Esteban Rodríguez says he should be in Dallas or Houston by now, not jobless in a one-street town in San Luis Potosí, a state that sends many of its sons and daughters to North Texas.

He's even more anxious to leave than José Meléndez, 18, who has a friend in Dallas and would like to be there - yesterday... (click here for full article)

Taking Apart the $819 billion Stimulus Package
The centerpiece of President Obama's domestic agenda is an $819 billion economic stimulus plan. The Senate will consider the measure this week, with an eye toward the amount of tax cuts and spending. Republicans and Democrats spar over what to consider a tax cut. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tallies the tax-cut portion to be significantly less than the one-third Democrats claim... (click here for full article)

Bunning's Social Security change defeated again
Kentucky U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning's bid to lower Social Security taxes died this week when his amendment to the financial stimulus package was soundly defeated.

Bunning, a Republican, blamed Senate Democrats for leading the charge against the amendment that fell Wednesday night by a vote of 57 to 39... (click here for full article)

Yearly Mexican remittances drop for 1st time
MEXICO CITY (AP) - The money sent home by Mexican migrants fell in 2008 for the first time on record, Mexico's central bank said Tuesday - part of a global trend that could worsen as emigrants from developing countries lose jobs in the global financial crisis. (click here for full article)

The Congressional economic stimulus plan would place the Social Security Trust Fund into deficit for the first time ever next year, if the current economic stimulus package is passed by both Houses of Congress.

Social Security is funded by payroll taxes that employees and their employers pay into the system. Money that comes into the Social Security Trust Fund is used to pay the Social Security checks retirees receive each month, and since the creation of the Trust Fund in 1983, the program has always had more money coming in than going out.

However, that may change as soon as next year, due to a proposed refundable payroll tax credit which would offer workers a refund on their portion of Social Security taxes, meaning there would be insufficient cash to pay benefits. The $145.3 billion refundable payroll tax credit proposal would give individual workers up to $500 and couples up to $1,000.

The Council of Seniors joins The Senior Citizens League in advocating for any decrease in payroll taxes to be taken from the general treasury, not the Social Security Trust Fund.

http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-information-services/20090129/DC6451529012009-1.html

You want change? Try these ideas
Each presidential candidate is giving his rendition of the changes he wants for America.

Here are a few that I believe all Americans want... (click here for full article)

Robin Summerfield, representing Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, addresses an audience of 50 at the Civic Council-sponsored Seniors Resource Center in Frederick, MD, on December 10, 2008. He discussed some of the challenges facing the Social Security and Medicaid systems, and some of the options for addressing those problems.

On June 29, 2004, the U.S. Commissioner of Social Security and the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute signed a "totalization" agreement which would coordinate the Social Security programs of both countries. No further action has been taken to finalize the agreement during the intervening 2 ½ years.

Totalization - Social Security for Illegal Aliens
On June 29, 2004, the U.S. Commissioner of Social Security and the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute signed a "totalization" agreement which would coordinate the Social Security programs of both countries. No further action has been taken to finalize the agreement during the intervening 2 ½ years. (click here for full article)

Totalization Sell-Out: What You Don't Know will Cost You
While most Americans were riveted to the hotly contested Democratic National Primary in June of 2004 and the national media speculated on Howard Dean or John Kerry, the Commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration (Jo Anne Barnhart) and her Mexican counterpart concluded the U.S.-Mexican Totalization Agreement. This agreement had to be in place prior to the administration’s second term and it’s all-out offensive for Social Security reform. (click here for full article)

Totalization is a Bad Idea
Through a Freedom of Information Act Request, a private group recently obtained a copy of a 2004 agreement between the United States and Mexico that will allow hundreds of thousands of noncitizens to receive Social Security benefits. (click here for full article)

Totalization With Mexico Could "Total" Social Security
Totalization agreements were begun to help employees sent abroad to still have enough credits to draw Social Security benefits with the contributions paid in total in the countries in which the employee worked. Most such agreements -- the United States has 20 -- are with European countries...

However, with the State Department and the Social Security Administration having now signed onto the idea of Totalization with Mexico, it has become an issue that could devastate the American Social Security system, and therefore, an issue which needs to be brought to the attention of EVERY AMERICAN! As I view it, this literally has the potential to bankrupt our retirement system. (click here for full article)