The 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act did eliminate the $122 minimum monthly allowance granted since 1975 to poor and sporadically employed social security recipients. This change affected 3 million people, 3/4s of them women. But is the Cato Institute citing Reagan's cuts as evidence that social security has been cut back? That would be truly rich.
Joel Blau
Devine, James wrote:
I heard some twit from the "libertarian" Cato Institute being interviewed on U.S. National Public Radio a couple of days ago on why he and people like him were opposed to Social Security. One reason was along the lines of "we put money into the system year after year and when it's time to get the benefits, by some whim, Congress could decide not to pay." He immediately said something like "not that it's ever happened (except to some people)."
Anyway, we can restate this: "we put money into personal accounts year after year and when it's time to get the benefits, by some whim, Wall Street could decide not to pay" (as when the "Market" crashes).
BTW, when has Congress decided not to pay SS benefits to some people? Who were these people? JD
