Unless Social Security reforms are made soon, financial experts estimate that the 60-year-old government program will be bankrupt by 2030. On July 17, 1998, President Clinton asked all Americans, "to consider new ideas, to engage in. . .bold, persistent experimentation," in order to preserve Social Security for the next generation. Answering the President's call, eight Hamilton College students spent the past semester researching this pressing national crisis to propose a plan to salvage the current Social Security program.
The student plan demonstrates that Security Security can be both financially solvent and adequate enough to meet the financial and social needs of a greying America through a number of proposals. A forward-looking proposition, "Salvaging Social Security" is singular among all other Social Security reform proposals because it offers a combination of both progressive and conservative reforms. Key features of the plan include the reduction of the CPI (Consumer Price Index) by 0.21%, elimination of both the income tax cap and the earnings test, an increase in the retirement age to 70 by the year 2075, a cautious investment of 50% of the surplus of the general Social Security fund, and implementing a voluntary contribution program.
According to project advisor Gary Wyckoff, associate professor of government at Hamilton College, the student-authored proposal "makes a lot of sense. It is balanced in the sense that it achieves savings through a variety of cuts while addressing the economic, political, and fairness implications of each reform."
The student-crafted proposal will be critiqued by four nationally regarded public policy experts. Peter J. Ferrara is the general counsel and chief economist at Americans for Tax Reform, and also a senior fellow at the CATO Institute. Julie Kosterlitz covers Social Security for National Journal, a Washington, DC, weekly magazine on politics and government reform. Robert D. Reischauer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. C. Eugene Stuerele is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and author of a weekly column, "Economic Perspective," for Tax Notes Magazine.
Students and co-authors Tonya Bloomer (N.Y.), Bjorn Franson (Mass.), David Gaynes (Conn.), Jennifer Irvine (Md.), Cara Rosenberg (Mass.), Christopher Snow (N.J.), Jameson Toner (Mass.), and Wendy Worms (Conn.), will present their plan and answer questions following the expert critique.
Hamilton College is a highly selective residential college offering a rigorous liberal arts curriculum. Students are challenged to think, write and speak critically, creatively and analytically, so that upon graduation they may distinguish themselves in both their professions and their communities.
