This week is a week of tremendous excitement for those who are interested in the Congressional budget process -- which is likely to be a relatively small group of folks. Beneath all the eye-glazing numbers, though, are values. And real people whose lives will be shaped, for better or worse,...

Co-authored by Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, Founding Co-Directors of Social Security Works and Co-Chairs of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition.

It's not usual for politicians to admit error.

The "sequester" poses an unnecessary and huge danger, potentially inflicting deep wounds to the economy and to...

In his stirring second inaugural address, President Barack Obama demonstrated that he understands what Social Security means to the American people. In saying, "[W]e reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build...

Notwithstanding the White House claim that the fiscal-cliff deal is "A Victory for Middle Class Families and the Economy," we worry that it will play out as a defeat for both. Intended or not, the deal set the agenda for negotiations that will threaten the future of Social Security, Medicare,...

The following letter was co-authored by Eric Kingson and Nancy Altman, co-chairs of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, and sent to every Congressional office.

Our coalition of 320 organizations representing a broad cross-section of the American people respectfully urges you to reject the use of the less-generous and...

Pity those poor politicians who want to cut Social Security benefits by changing the way cost of living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated.

They want to be counted as among the "serious people in the room." You know, the folks who are willing to "compromise" the well-being of everyday Americans...

Once again, politicians are quietly scheming about ways to implement Wall Street austerity plans, including cutting important systems like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

That's why we're asking every member of Congress to promise:

• NO benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
• NO tax cuts for the top...

On October 16, at 8:30 a.m., the Social Security Administration will post on its website the size of the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2013. Experts estimate that the 2013 COLA will increase Social Security benefits in nominal dollars by between 1.5 and 1.7 percent. The adjustment...

by Nancy Altman, Social Security Works, Eric Kingson, Syracuse University, and Benjamin W. Veghte, Scholars Strategy Network, Harvard University

This piece was originally published by the Scholars Strategy Network, and the full brief is available as a PDF here.

Generations of Americans have worked together to build...

The Honorable Alan Simpson
United States Senator (retired)
1201 Sunshine Avenue
Cody, Wyoming 82414

Dear Senator Simpson,

Your plan would begin pulling apart our Social Security system brick by brick. Unfortunately, you seem to think that bigotry and bullying will silence those of us who are trying...

The Honorable Erskine Bowles
Co-Chair
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

Dear Mr. Bowles:

While we have extremely serious objections to the Social Security provisions proposed in the Bowles-Simpson plan and, indeed, its inclusion at all in a deficit reduction package, this is not why we are...

The Washington Post doesn't seem to want to take any prisoners in its on-going assault on Social Security. On October 31st, the paper ran a front page, above the fold, "news" article ("The debt fallout: How Social Security went 'cash negative' earlier than expected") falsely claiming that Social...

The 1% is using the super-secret Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (a.k.a. the Super Committee), to reach directly into the pockets of the 99% and steal hundreds of billions of dollars from them. This committee has unprecedented power. It has been meeting behind closed doors for weeks. Finally, though,...

A Social Security Administration employee's story about 9/11: "The most difficult, and at the same time most gratifying, work I did was to help relatives of 9/11 victims file for Social Security... One woman, in particular, stands out in my mind. Her husband was only in...

Co-authord by Nancy J. Altman and Eric Kingson, co-chairs of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign (www.strengthensocialsecurity.org)

In a recent Politico column, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler, respectively the president and senior vice-president of The Third Way, criticize "progressives" for opposing deals which cut Social Security benefits. They...

Don't know about the rest of you 50+ folks, but it's time for me to burn my AARP card.

Have to start by saying that I like and respect many people who work for and serve as volunteers for AARP.

An article by Laura Meckler...

Most Americans would not know the name Robert M. Ball, but all owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Starting with Social Security just four years after its enactment, he spent the next seven decades improving and defending the most successful and popular program in the nation's history. Friday, a...

By Eric Kingson, Nancy Altman and John M. Cornman

Washington's policy elites just don't get Social Security. On Thursday, Congress passed the Obama-GOP compromise tax bill, replacing 15 percent of revenue dedicated to Social Security with borrowed money that will increase the federal deficit in 2011. On Dec. 3, a...

Former Senator Alan Simpson should be removed from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. And so should Social Security, but for very different reasons.

Simpson should be sent packing because he is a crude bully whose disposition and biases render him totally inappropriate to co-chair this important...

Co-authored by Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson

In 1982, at the first meeting of the so-called Greenspan Commission, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, "We are all entitled to our own opinion, but not to our own set of facts." Alan Simpson, the former Republican Senator...