IPI Publication Press Release
IPI Ideas - # 32
Related Publication Title:
Design Principles For Strengthening Social Security Through Personal Accounts
Released by Lawrence A. Hunter, Tom Giovanetti on 02/28/2005
IPI Ideas - # 32
Related Publication Title:
Design Principles For Strengthening Social Security Through Personal Accounts
Released by Lawrence A. Hunter, Tom Giovanetti on 02/28/2005
Full Text
Press Release (02/28/2005)
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New IPI Publication: Design Principles For Strengthening Social Security Through Personal Accounts
For Immediate Release: Monday, May 02, 2005
Contact: Sonia Blumstein, (703) 912-5742 or soniab@ipi.org.(Washington, DC): It’s no wonder public support for Social Security reform is slowly waning. Social Security reform critics and supporters have clouded the debate with false arguments and confusing plans.
In an attempt to bring clarity and guidance to the debate, a new publication released by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), “Design Principles for Strengthening Social Security through Personal Accounts,” suggests which principles and priorities the President and Congress should put “on the table” and which to take “off the table”:
1. Provide large personal accounts
2. Provide a guaranteed safety net (ensures workers receive at least as much as they are promised by Social Security currently.)
3. Prohibit benefit cuts
4. Prohibit any hike in payroll taxes (including increasing rates or lifting the wage cap)
5. Do not set a pre-determined retirement age
6. Provide a “progressive” contribution schedule (allows a higher percentage of income to be saved at lower income levels, thereby generating more than Social Security currently promises for low-income workers)
7. Use a modest spending restraint, earmark revenue growth from the accounts, and issue new bonds as necessary to finance the personal accounts.
“A well designed system of voluntary personal retirement accounts can make Social Security permanently solvent and deliver demonstrably superior benefits to the vast majority of retirees as compared to Social Security,” say authors Lawrence Hunter, IPI Senior Research Fellow, and Tom Giovanetti, IPI President.
Copies of this publication are available at www.ipi.org or by contacting Sonia Blumstein at soniab@ipi.org, (703) 912-5742 office, or (202) 213-0379 cell. Press interviews welcomed.
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