These two sources of revenue alone would provide three-fourths of the revenue needed to double Social Security’s\u00a0payout. Hill recommends other revenue streams such as removing the unfair deductions in the tax code, which benefit the top 20 percent of earners but that most low and moderate income Americans cannot enjoy. Some examples are deductions for private retirement savings, homeownership, health care and education.<\/p>\n

He argues that while a certain number of moderate income Americans benefit from these, if we doubled Social Security payments for everyone they would no longer need to rely on these deductions as vehicles for retirement savings. Home ownership and 401Ks, as we have seen, are not reliable investments. In 2010 the mortgage interest deduction alone will amount to about $108 billion. Higher income Americans who are losing these tax deductions would see part of it returned to them in the form of a greater Social Security payout.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Stephen Hill does not mention the logical place to find offsets for doubling Social Security benefits: Decreased defense spending.<\/p>\n

How would doubling Social Security work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hill has additional ideas for how doubling the Social Security payment could be implemented. For example, he suggests rolling it out in stages, targeting lower earners first. And, allowing seniors who have not yet reached full retirement age to take a half their Social Security and work part time without losing their right to a full Social Security payment upon their retirement.<\/p>\n

According to Hill, an expansion of Social Security would be good for the economy because it would act as a stabilizer during economic downturns, keeping retirees secure while stimulating consumer demand. It also would help American businesses compete with foreign companies who don\u2019t have to provide pensions because their countries already have generous national retirement plans.<\/p>\n

Hill\u2019s practical idea for an expanded Social Security would provide a stable, and secure retirement for every American.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far the debate on Social Security has been between the deficit hawks who want to cut Social Security benefits to reduce government debt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[662,663,523],"yoast_head":"\n