Bowles-Simpson deficit plan worse for future Social Security recipients than no action by Congress

http://washingtonpolicywatch.org/2012/05/25/bowles-simpson-deficit-plan-worse-for-future-social-security-recipients-than-no-action-by-congress/

Deficit hawk and former Senator Alan Simpson, co-author of the Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction Plan and infamous for calling Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million tits” is making a bold claim: in order to “save” Social Security for the next generation, it must be cut – substantially.

But in a recent post, Ross Eisenbrey at the Economic Policy Institute points out that Alan Simpson’s plan would actually be more harmful to future generations than no changes whatsoever. “Our children and grandchildren will lose critical benefits under Simpson’s plan, while [current] seniors like him are mostly protected.”

Here’s why: future benefits are already scheduled to fall to a replacement rate of about 36% for middle class earners thanks to an increase in the retirement age, and because of earlier cuts from the 1980s. But Simpson’s plan would make even deeper cuts for a worker retiring at 65, lowering the replacement rate to 28%.