Retirement Security Program

Next Social Contract event in Encore | 'Averting a Bust for Boomers'

Communications — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:43:00 -0400

New America in the News:
The New America Foundation’s panel today, “Averting a Bust for the Boomers: The State of Retirement Preparedness and How to Improve It,” blew up the popular image of baby boomers as healthy, wealthy and wise (at least about their finances)...LINK

NY Times Profiles New America's Ten Big Ideas Event with Sen. Clinton

Communications — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:43:00 -0500

New America in the News:

At a conference devoted to “big ideas” for the nation’s future, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said this morning that compromise need to be “a goal – not a dirty word” in politics and government, remarks that reflect her own pragmatic style but that are more moderate than the views of some of her rivals and hard-core elements of the Democratic primary electorate.

With some of her 2008 presidential opponents offering sharply partisan messages, and another of them, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, seeking to transcend partisanship, Mrs. Clinton staked her place in the middle of the political rhetoric as she tries to appeal to broad swaths of the American electorate – even at the risk of alienating some Democratic primary voters.

“I don’t think Americans are looking for some kind of group-hug bipartisanship – I think they’re looking for leaders who can get back to reality-based policy-making,” she said at the New America Foundation’s “Ten Big Ideas for a New America” conference in Washington, a few blocks from the Capitol.

“The answer is not that we’re going to get rid of partisanship — as long as there are human beings jousting for influence and position, they’re going to take all kinds of opposing, partisan stances,” she said. “But it does mean that we can be smarter about how to narrow the differences between partisan ideas, and try to eliminate the partisan gamesmanship.”

“We have to reinvigorate the public debate and make a compromise a goal – not a dirty word,” she added a few minutes later, “because that’s how we’ve made progress historically – by looking for that common ground that we can stake out together...”

For the complete article, please visit The New York Times website.

Michael Calabrese

Operations — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:45:00 -0400

Vice President; Director, Wireless Future Program

As Vice President of the New America Foundation, Michael Calabrese directs the Wireless Future Program and helps to guide the Foundation's work related to retirement security and the Next Social Contract Initiative. Previously, Mr. Calabrese served as Director of Domestic Policy Programs at the Center for National Policy, as General Counsel of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and as pension and employee benefits counsel at the national AFL-CIO.

An attorney and graduate of both Stanford Business and Law Schools, Mr. Calabrese speaks and writes frequently on issues related to spectrum, wireless broadband, and Internet policy, as well as on Next Social… more

Addressing the Decline of Traditional Pensions

Communications — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 22:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
03/15/2006 - 11:00am

As the House-Senate conference takes up the pension funding and reform bill this month, the conversation about how best to update the nation's retirement saving system is far from over.

The pending pension bill may achieve some important improvements, but it does little to address the fact that American workers are clearly not saving enough: A majority of the workforce does not participate in an employer-sponsored plan, an increasing number of large companies are freezing their traditional pension plans, and last year -- for the first time since the Great Depression -- the nation's individual savings rate was negative.

It is unclear whether any reform can staunch the exodus of firms out of defined benefit plans, or what changes can induce individuals to save enough on their own through 401(k)-style plans. Given the precarious state of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation-- and the bitter battle over the appropriate discount rate currently taking place --it is likely that new legislative initiatives will be surfacing soon.

Our panel will discuss the root causes of the steady disappearance of traditional defined-benefit pensions and examine what legislative reforms have the potential to either preserve these plans, or successfully extend new savings incentives and mechanisms in their place. Please join us for this very timely discussion.

The Congressional Savings and Ownership Caucus is Co-Chaired by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), Rep. Phil English (R-PA), Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) and Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI).

Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan

Fiscal Policy — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The three of us -- former aides to President Clinton, Senator McCain, and President Bush -- did an experiment to see if we could develop a reform plan that we could all support. The Liebman-MacGuineas-Samwick (LMS) plan demonstrates the types of compromises that can help policy makers from across the political spectrum agree on a Social Security reform plan. The plan achieves sustainable solvency through progressive changes to taxes and benefits, introduces mandatory personal accounts, and specifies important details that are often left unaddressed in other reform plans.

The plan also illustrates that a compromise plan can contain sensible but… more

Promises, Promises

Articles — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

If somebody owes you $10, the next best thing to having the cash itself is probably having a written IOU. After all, the IOU will make it harder to forget the liability, and also might give you evidence to use in court should the borrower attempt to shortchange you.

The Social Security system is loaded with a confusing mishmash of IOUs, both implicit and explicit. Reforms tend to rearrange the liabilities in this crazy quilt. Do the labels on the IOUs matter?

Social Security faces an unfunded liability of $4 trillion over the next 75 years. The liability is $11.1 trillion… more

The Forgotten Issues in Social Security Reform

Communications — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
03/29/2005 - 12:00pm

The world today is very different than when Social Security was created. A number of issues should be considered when thinking about how to reform Social Security, including:

Should we update benefits to reflect changes in family status and economic well-being of the elderly?

Can our children really afford to finance our spending such a large portion of our life in retirement?

Should Social Security reform be used to help strengthen the economy through increased work and saving?

How should we think about Social Security if our primary goal is to provide retirement security for those who are most vulnerable?

The panel explored these issues and their policy implications, providing the context to assess proposed reforms and designing alternatives.

Forget Accounts for a Moment: How Do We Fix Social Security?

Communications — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
03/22/2005 - 12:03pm

The debate about how to reform Social Security has been dominated by the fight over whether to create individual accounts and whether or not the system faces a "crisis." The central issue, what policy changes to make to address the system's long-term deficits, has been all but ignored. An esteemed group of experts will discuss many of the various options to fix Social Security, with no mention of accounts.

Hung Up on Words

Articles — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The discussion over how to fix Social Security is filled with words that are getting too much attention. Privatization is one. Focus groups apparently don't like that word, and supporters of private accounts have taken to using the words "personal accounts." Why get so hung up on what you call it? The issue is whether individual ownership of Social Security savings is a good idea or not.

Crisis is another. Crisis is a relative term so there is no right or wrong here, but all serious policy experts believe Social Security has over-promised what it can deliver and that changes… more

Social Security in Your Mailbox

Articles — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Companies considering new product launches often try out different beta versions of their products on focus groups. The practice is a sound one. No matter how attractive a concept may be, there is no telling whether you have a winner until it takes the form that the customer will see.

With such a process in mind, it is useful to pause for a moment to consider the practical appearance of the product that Social Security reformers are advocating. If optional personal accounts are available, they present choices and possibilities to citizens. How will these be conveyed? What will workers see?… more