Response to Rep. Kolbe

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

Representative Kolbe,

I appreciate your response to my concerns.  You are to be commended for 
designing a plan that is scored as fiscally sound for 75 years.  And you are 
certainly right that changes would have to be made in the current system to 
get the same score, but those changes could be modest and do not need to 
involve carve outs, private individual accounts, etc.

It is also true that I would like to see more of certain kinds of benefits 
for women, because they are still much more likely to be poor than men.  I've 
not worked out all the details of paying for it, but I'm working on it!  I do 
think the cap on taxable earnings could be raised, so that higher earning 
individuals would pay in more. 

Another way to raise money for the present system is to invest a portion of 
the Trust Fund in private equities.  I think this is also a good idea.

 I also think the SSA and Treasury have been unduly negative in their 
predicitons of future economic and wage growth, which drives the discussion 
about how much we have to cut benefits or raise taxes to keep the system we 
have.

Perhaps, given how uncertain the future is, we should enact changes that are 
contingent upon future economic productivity and wage growth.  Benefits which 
cost more could be phased in if growth proves to be stronger than it had been 
projected.


Heidi Hartmann