We cant hear you. Here it comes. Yeah, for each question identify the organization. Hello. Identify yourself and your position. Im a humble tax reporter and analyst. There three of us. Im not an expert about Social Security, but my understanding is that surpluses of the program for a given year invest in a trust fund and treasury bonds. They have a low yield. There was a plan to privatize Social Security. It would seem to me that having a slightly more normal its endless. For example, raisings and eliminating the tax cap. We had to pick and choose which to include. Especially in the trade off, we collected only 12 of what is commonly proposed for Social Security. So we did not test the options that would invest the money differently. That would be a great question to ask. Yes . A microphone over here. Im hannah weinberger. I have a methodology question. How did you get people to Pay Attention to these Detailed Survey questions that i was looking in the report and it looks like it took them about 20 or 30 minutes to complete. It looks like people did, but im curious how you got them to do that. How did you find the people who were willing to get through . This is great [ no audio ] okay. Thank you. This was an online survey. People were part of the a panel of research now, about two million people. They have a slight incentive to participate. About 20 minutes. We do a lot of surveys and you can get peoples attention in 20 minutes. The good thing about an online panel is people can read the choices and understand it. We find that useful. At any rate there is a great deal of survey research being done and accurate in predicting elections. We will see what happens this time. We got cooperation that was needed. We can understand how long they did it and if its quickly, its through the maps. For example, if they just answered everything the same, they have straight liners. They have life surveys being done. Was there overlap between this years group of respondents and the last . Each was a representative sample of the population. We didnt go back to the people we surveyed before. That is in some ways by design. Sometimes people learn and they are screw and prejudiced in that way. New simple. When people find the surveys, they cant believe they would raise their own taxes and you found them two years ago and went back this time. Those are not near the representative sample. Thank you very much. As i mentioned earlier, the council and economic advisers. Probably his one of the toughest jobs. Remember earlier i said few issues on whether there was bipartisan agreement. Its fair to say whether you are a republican or democrat or independent, the reputation for objectivity, quality and we can talk about the perspective on this issue. Social security plays a Critical Role in the retirement system, providing the basic foundation on which security is built. It provides the Survivors Insurance and protects all of us against the possibility that early death will leave our family with reduced means of support. Thats why im grateful for the continued work on all of the aspects of social insurance and how all of them fit together. They have the public understanding of this Critical Program and ensure all americans protect against wildlife. Social security will convey direct benefits of 863 billion. To 58 million americans in 2014. Almost 90 million are 65 or older. Those payments make up an average of 38 of income for people over 65. Social security provides greater benefits to the most vulnerable workers. It replaces a larger share at lower earnings levels. Equals 14 million retirees would fall into poverty without Social Security. Without Social Security and age 65 would increase from less than 10 from over 40 . As they brought down the savings at older ages, it becomes more important as a source of income. For the most elderly, it is the primary source of income for over half of married and 3 4 of unmarried beneficiaries. Social security benefits are particularly important to women. In 2010 more than half of women over 65 had no Retirement Savings and 401 k counts. Womens lower Retirement Savings and longer life expectancies can translate into greater hardship in old age. That is why features of Social Security including spousal and survivors benefits and the progressive formula and the guaranteed long benefit indexed to the cost of living are all so important for women. Many particularly important for africanamerican white households with the Retirement Savings. It stems from unequal access to work based retirement. They participated employment based retirement plans compared to about half of whites. As such, they have different groups. For elderly beneficiaries, they could for 90 and 35 of whites and 55 . As you know, Social Security is more than just a Retirement Program. It is an experience program that covers the vast majority of american workers. Almost all workers of pate employment are covered and retearees make up 70 . Disabled workers and survivors of deceased workers make up the other 30 . Roughly 95 age 202049. They have a disability protection. These protections are provided at a relatively low administrative cost and without the adverse premium you might otherwise have to pay. Social security will continue to grow and workers bear more risk to the Retirement Benefits. Active participants were in defined benefit plans. By 2011, this number had fallen to 18 . They define Contribution Plans that provide what workers have saved plus whatever the gains have accrued. The plans provide an important opportunity for americans to accumulate wealth in an important part of a retirement system. Not all americans have access to Contribution Plans. Over half of the workforce has no private pension plan at all. For those that do have savings, few people roll over their savings and especially with the type of built in cost of living adjustments provided by Social Security. Part of the answer to these challenges is to strengthen the ability it of americans to save for their retirement and a you initize the savings. In 2009, the treasury expanded the ability to establish opt out systems for Retirement Savings that are a proven way to increase for 401 k plans. Earlier this year, the president directed treasure tow establish my ra accounts that would provide an easy and safeway to introduce more americans to Retirement Savings and pushing for legislation to make savings plans available to all workers who do not have them today. Mottles on an idea developed by the Heritage Foundation and the brookings institute. There is no substitute for Social Securitys guaranteed benefit. Thats why its important to work to protect and strengthen Social Security. Addressing the challenge it faces as well as protecting the beneficiaries that rely on it. As the president said in his state of the union address, you should find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. You should not put at risk the most vulnerable and people with disabilities without slashing benefits for future generations and subjecting americans guaranteed income to the whims of the stock market. Thank you. Jason is kind enough to stay for a couple of questions. The survey finds across the board support for the benefit for expanding Social Security so it prois more generous benefit for the lowest income. There a handful of bills that have been and what are the prospects that the president might get behind that . As i said and as the president made clear, this is something you need to deal with on a bipartisan basis and the solvency of Social Security. In the process of doing that, you want to look at key areas of elderly women living alone have high poverty rates. Thats something that someone could address in Social Security reform. The minimum benefit have become outdated. Thats another thing you could look at in the context of Social Security reform. As he said many times, that should be a conversation and that conversation should recognize all of the important things about Social Security that i described. They should try to strengthen and improve on the system. Questions . There was one. Hi. Nice seeing you, jason. So the other broad area of agreement in the survey was increasing fic attaca taxes. I guess you dont want to announce that today, if you do, feel free. Do you think there is bipartisan appetite for that . I dont want to speculate about what this appetite is for. What is important is this program has a bipartisan history that is important across the spectrum and that we Work Together to strengthen that. Any other questions for jason . Nothing . Hes a fine guy. Agai again. The committee for responsible federal budget. It made me think about that. We found the results were bipartisan, there is bipartisan support for lifting the payroll tax rate. Is that something that the president would be willing to do even though it would come in conflict with the pledge not to raise taxes under 250,000 a year. If there were bipartisan support. This is something he would want to work on a bipartisan manner to do. He said in the past when you are dealing with Social Security, on a number of occasions that bring an additional revenue from high income households, something he thinks has a lot of support and would be consistent with strengthening the program. One more. Jason, a slightly different question which is not so much what would the president do or what policy makers are going to do, but what we found in the survey. Quite widespread and raising taxes if thats what it took. Do they have any personal speculation on how that would the disconnect. From the general public and the conversation of washington. I dont im not an expert in Public Opinion, but i can tell you that Social Security is just a very Important Program. There ways that strengthen it. I understand it. No more questions. Thank you very much. We are presenting these findings and they ask them to come up and provide us with the survey. To moderate this Panel Discussion about the study of findings. We have mark who has been very involved in writing about it. Mark miller. He covers the issue of roadwayers. He has been looking at the issue as much as anyone else in the past few years. His bioin your color. When you look at the writings, they are strag matic. Everybody has to take a role in planning for their own resources appropriately. Mark will moderate this and i will turn it over to you. A special welcome. Interesting and provocative panel for the discussion. We have about an hour and that will give us time at the end. Before we get started at the academy, we are asked to remind you. We hope that you will take a minute to fill those out as it helps us with planning the future events. As a journalist, i devote a lot of coverage to Social Security. Along with coverage of health care for average americans. Release the latest numbers. It indicated and americans would be living below the poverty line . Thats a fairly dramatic figure i think. The benefits that are provided, the benefit will be a few thousand over the poverty line. When it comes to the future, the survey of what it does shows a clear public cons consensus. Income groups and people do want Social Security to do more and not less. They seem to be willing to pay for it. Its remarkable in light of the general distress of government we see today and lack of agreement about anything else. At the same time we see the future of the program. Lets get to the thoughts. They are going to introduce them to you and we will find detailed biographies of the packet. Andrea campbell teaches political science. An expert on social insurance and taxes and Public Opinion about them both in the u. S. And abroad. She is author of a new book and familys struggle. To explore how means tested programs actually work on the ground. An expert and tax and economic policy. Once dubbed an regularly testifies before media outlets. The Vice President for income Security Policy at the academy and directs the academys work on Social Security, disability shrs, Workers Compensation and unemployment and related issues. She authored many of the brief and reports and directed the landmark studies on proposals to partially privatize Social Security and on promoting rehabilitation and employment on persons with disabilities. The president and ceo of Global Policy solutions. She also cochaired the commission to modernize Social Security that developed a reform plan to make Social Security fully solvent for more than 75 years. She held the black caucus foundation. The office of charles rangle and the staff ways and means committee. Our procedure and format is fairly straight forward. The study for a few minutes. They have a moderated conversation before campbell. Thank you very much for inviting me to be here. I want to make two pointings. Is to talk about Social Security in a context of other programs we have in the u. S. Then talk about what the public likes a a lot of commentary tht reached a fever pitch in the Great Recession about the cost of the major entitlement programs. The implications from the future and the need to trim them back with predominant theme of the conversation. The question of medicare for a moment, Social Security is in pretty good shape, not that you would necessarily know that from the national conversation, but the longterm gap is solvable in a number of ways. I would argue that not only are there strong arguments for preserving the program as it exists today, but strong arguments for enhancing benefits especially at the low end of the income spectrum and particularly when we look at what Social Security does and citizens compared to what happens in other countries. It is our most effective antipoverty program. Aids far more Effective Program than social assistance or means tested programs which are variously weight listed such as Housing Assistance or child care assistance or which dont reach as many as they could. Take food stamps. Only 2 3 of eligible people el rolled compared to everyone eligible for Social Security being enrolled. They have difficulty accessing doctors and ssi supplemental security income to the poor elderly, blind and disabled citizens provide payments that are below the poverty level. I detail the shortcomings and the Social Security as a social Insurance Program rather than social assistance does a better job than all of these programs in terms of alleviating poverty. There a number of reasons for concern around Social Security. Despite the fact that its the most expansive social policy we have, it has significant sort comings. The replacement rate for peoples working age incomes that Social Security replaces is lower. Par the minimum benefit is inadequate overtime. Older minorities in the old, old whose other sources of income have been exhausted. The other thing worth noting is benefits are falling in the sense that medicare cost sharing is going up. If you look at the premiums and deductibles and coinsurance that they pay for doctors visits and prescription drugs that, consumes a growing share of the average Social Security check. Now its about 29 and projected to grow to almost half in 2040 unless you make changes. Its an Effective Program, but there arguments in a number of ways. The question is, is the public support there . We can take a look at the survey. We know that large majorities do not provide incomes for seniors and we should raise Retirement Benefits and preserve Social Security. If you look at other polls that compare support to other government programs, Social Security usual lly comes out as number one. Is there a willingness to pay overtime . They have asked about isolation and do you want funding to be increased or kept the same . There is high support. We asked questions such as should Social Security funding be increased versus reducing taxes or addressed to the budget deficit. Social security wins out. There can be questions that ask how would we want to go about Social Security funding. I am referring to many overtime. The most popular consider is increase taxes