id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
iiclr-22510	Tweedy, Jaclyn	Social Insecurity: A Proposal to Reform the United States Social Security Retirement System	2018	33	.pdf	application/pdf	14047	839	56	As early as 1939, Congress amended the Social Security Act to include survivors’ benefits to the spouse and minor children of the worker.124 Benefits were not adjusted for inflation until 1950 when Congress passed legislation allowing for cost of living adjustments (COLAs).125 The enactment of COLAs significantly increased benefits paid to retirees since the amount of benefits had not been adjusted since the program commenced payments in 1942, and inflation rates were high in the 1940s during and following World War II.126 As early as the 1970s, it was clear that the Social Security program did not generate enough revenue to provide for all of its beneficiaries.127 Congress passed the first legislation to correct sustainability problems in 1977.128 Through that amendment, the payroll taxes were increased, the wage base was increased, benefits were slightly reduced, and wages and COLAs were to adjust independently.129 These amendments increased Social Security’s financial shortfalls for the next fifty years.130 The last major amendments to Social Security retirement were enacted in 2000, when Congress, in a bipartisan effort, repealed the requirement that set a limit on how much money retirees could earn while receiving retirement benefits.131 Since the repeal of the retirement earnings test, retirees no longer have to be “substantially retired” in order to receive benefits.132 III. SOCIAL INSECURITY: A PROPOSAL TO REFORM THE UNITED STATES SOCIAL SECURITY RETIREMENT SYSTEM JACLYN TWEEDY* I. INTRODUCTION The United States of America faces a retirement crisis in the wake of the depleting trust fund that supports Social Security retirement benefits.1 Without reform, the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Fund will be unable to support full payment of benefits sometime between 2033 and 2037.2 The trust fund depletion is attributed to the retirement of the baby boom generation.3 Through 2037, OASDI pay outs are expected to increase more rapidly than noninterest income because the number of beneficiaries will increase more quickly than the number of American workers.4 As a result, only 78% of scheduled benefits will be able to be paid on time after 2034.5 The most recent legislative proposals for reform would still be inadequate to guarantee full payment of benefits to eligible, retiring Americans after 2034.6 Depletion of the OASDI Trust Fund is problematic, because many Americans have failed to adequately save for retirement, instead expecting the United States government to shoulder the burden of retirement through the Social Security Administration and Medicare programs.7 Without the Social Security retirement benefits, many Americans will have inadequate funds to quit working before their death.8 Under the current retirement scheme of the Social Security * J.D. Candidate, 2018, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law; B.A., cum laude, 2010, Economics and Political Science, Hanover College.	cache/iiclr-22510.pdf	txt/iiclr-22510.txt