Detroit Free Press

Len Nichols in Detroit Free Press | 'Healthcare Among Top Issues for Voters'

Communications — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:10:00 -0400

New America in the News:

. . . Len Nichols of the Washington-based New America Foundation, a public policy institute, said at a panel discussion on health care in Washington last week: "If we could just agree to cover everyone, we could talk about how." . . .

Nichols said the quickest way to get Congress to create a Medicare-like plan for all is to suggest that big employers don't have to offer health insurance. In other words, workers wouldn't stand for it. . .

Detroit Free Press Quotes Reid Cramer on AutoSave

Communications — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:43:00 -0500

New America in the News:

My Dad has never been much of one for giving advice, but one piece he offered many years ago stuck: Pay yourself first...

Pay yourself first is a short way of saying set some money aside every paycheck, before you start paying everyone else...

It is along those lines that Reid Cramer, a policy analyst and research director of the Asset Building Program at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, has been trying to get official Washington to listen to a new idea about the old virtue of thrift: "wise spending that creates greater wealth at a future time."

Cramer calls his concept AutoSave, and he says it is based on "behavioral economics" showing that simple, default savings plans work best. Direct deposits that put your cookie jar on autopilot.

In the AutoSave idea, 2% of pay would be moved by employers into a limited set of low-cost investment options specified by the employee. So after a year, an employee who makes $50,000 would have $1,000 set aside, plus the return on it. You could do that yourself, of course, but behavioral economists say you wouldn't and statistics show you don't.

The employee could get access to the money for any reason, but Cramer thinks it shouldn't be ATM-easy, maybe requiring at least a phone call during business hours or some other obstacle that allows for a second thought. Easy in, not quite so easy out is, he says, the model that works best.

The accounts would be portable, too, so as long as you're working, you can be saving. And Cramer might install some kind of tax credit for employers as an incentive to set up AutoSave.

"The evidence is in that when the savings process is easy and accessible, even people with low incomes can and will save," Cramer said. "Too many of our savings policies leave out large chunks of the population, such as those without employers offering 401(k) plans or those without high enough incomes to take advantage of tax preferences. ... While some would quickly withdraw their funds or use AutoSave in emergency situations, others might decide to build up a nest egg. So while the funds could be tapped at any time, AutoSave would be designed to take advantage of one of the most tried and true savings techniques: inertia..."

For the complete article, please visit The Detroit Free Press website.

Maya MacGuineas Proposes Social Security Plan in Detroit Free Press

Communications — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:42:00 -0500

New America in the News:

WASHINGTON -- Talks about Social Security will heat up in January when Democrats take majority control of Congress. But the discussion will be different from how it was in 2005, when President George W. Bush pushed for personal retirement savings accounts.

Momentum for that idea, which would have funded voluntary retirement savings accounts for younger workers by diverting a portion of current payroll taxes, died as Republicans in Congress failed to take up Bush's initiative amid opposition from a variety of groups, including Democrats...

One proposal getting lots of attention is a "little bit for everybody" plan that could form the basis of a successful bill, according to experts.

The so-called LMS plan is named for Jeffrey Liebman, a former aide to President Bill Clinton; Maya MacGuineas, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Andrew Samwick, former chief economist for Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

After gathering dust for a year, the plan is generating new interest on Capitol Hill, said MacGuineas, director of fiscal policy programs at the New America Foundation...

The Social Security Administration's Office of the Actuary said the plan would eliminate Social Security's solvency gap over the next 75 years while maintaining benefits at relatively comparable levels for future retirees.

"We tried to figure how to make compromise in each major area," MacGuineas said.

She said lawmakers see the plan as an honest attempt by a bipartisan group to identify the choices necessary to shore up Social Security...

For the complete article, please visit the Detroit Free-Press website.

With Three Smart Steps, Congress Can Make a Big Difference

Articles — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

I just paid off the last of my student loans. Today, I start saving for my children's college education, and I'm already behind. Like millions of Americans, by the time I retire, I will have spent over 75% of my life either paying or saving for college. It shouldn't be this hard.

The College Board recently reported that tuition and fees at public four-year colleges are up more than 37% in non-inflation-adjusted terms just since this year's senior class began college. At the current rate of tuition and fee increases, today's first-graders will be paying more than $341,000 for… more