Social Security

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is Maya MacGuineas and I am a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank here in Washington, where I work on fiscal policy. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. It is a privilege to appear before the Committee.

The Social Security Trustees' Report is the single most important and influential source of information about the financial health of the Old-Age and… more

Good morning members of the Commission. My name is Maya MacGuineas and I am a Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington DC, where I work on fiscal policy. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I realize that most of the country’s attention is focused on more immediate threats -- as is only appropriate. But it is important that at the same time, we take action to address the longer-term threats… more

Democrats are already lining up in opposition to the President's plan to reform Social Security. Bush has put forth only an outline of what he proposes … more

While politicians have been hesitant to discuss reforming Social Security, an issue long considered to be the third rail of politics, things are different this presidential … more

The latest in gimmicky government policies, the much-touted but meaningless "lock box" has taken the US by storm. The president, prominent Republican members of Congress and … more

The annual deadline for filing income tax returns came and went last week with surprisingly little of the usual fanfare and political grandstanding. Lest one be tempted to think that the quiet surrounding Tax Day was mostly due to the good economic times, a more convincing explanation may lie in the widespread ignorance that the largest levy that three-quarters of American families now pay is not the income tax, but the regressive payroll tax.

If Texas Gov. George W. Bush and… more