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...

Attempts to undo or diminish Social Security began upon the program's enactment; they continue unabated. Early charges of unconstitutionality foundered when the Supreme Court upheld the law. The Bush push for "privatization" shocked but did not awe. Participants and the public know that work and contributions earn the program's benefits....

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...

Health care reform (the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, aka, "PPCA") is President Obama's most important domestic achievement, providing a means to ensure health care coverage for an estimated 92 percent of non-elderly Americans while reducing costs in the health care system.

The individual mandate, the...

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...

Co-authored by Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson

No surprise, this Tuesday, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (a.k.a., the "Supercommittee") is listening to all the normal Washington insiders talk about why Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and a host of programs critically important to the American people must be sacrificed...

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,...

CO-AUTHORED BY NANCY ALTMAN and SUZANNE BLOUIN

This week, the Social Security Administration will name a boulevard on its Woodlawn campus, west of Baltimore, after a man who contributed enormously to the creation and development of Social Security. Robert J. Myers began working on Social Security in 1934 --...

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...

Social Security appears to be a key bargaining chip in the struggle over the debt limit. President Obama may have played smart politics when he threatened that, if the debt limit is not raised, Social Security checks might not go out on time. But he was needlessly scaring the program's...

CO-AUTHORED 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 that cut Social Security benefits. They advise...