National Journal Lists Top Social Security Websites

December 23, 2003

With Social Security reform promising to be a hot election topic in 2004, voters should be equipped with the latest research and policy analyses to form an opinion on individual accounts. Julie Kosterlitz, business and economics correspondent for the National Journal, comments on the top sources for information on Social Security reform:

"The official Web site of the Social Security Administration [www.socialsecurity.gov] … provides interesting information about the program's history and the statistics, actuarial projections, and research that feed the policy debate about Social Security's future.

"Congress's watchdog agencies, the Congressional Budget Office [www.cbo.gov] and the General Accounting Office [www.gao.gov], provide thorough, nonpartisan analyses of Social Security's impending financial problems, their effects on the budget and the economy, and the tough choices required for any fix … The shorter CBO briefs are just terrific—very balanced as well as digestible for the non-Social Security expert." See "Measuring Changes to Social Security Benefits," "Comparing Budgetary and Trust Fund Measures of the Outlook for Social Security and Medicare," "The Future Growth of Social Security: It's Not Just Society's Aging," and "Social Security Reform: The Use of Private Securities and the Need for Economic Growth."

"'Actuary,' like 'accountant,' is a word guaranteed to stop cocktail chatter dead. But the Web site of the American Academy of Actuaries [www.actuary.org] is not only evenhanded on the polarizing issue of Social Security reform, it manages to make the issue downright entertaining. Playing the 'Social Security Game' lets you choose from the key list of reform options, read the pros and cons for each, then see how far each choice takes you toward solving the program's problems." See "Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security," "Social Security Reform: Voluntary or Mandatory Individual Accounts," and "Automatic Adjustments to Maintain Social Security's Long-Range Actuarial Balance."

"The libertarian Cato Institute has for decades championed replacing part of Social Security with private investment accounts, and it has a snazzy Web site [www.socialsecurity.org] to advance its views. It's a good window on the free-market approach to reform. Most useful, though hardly objective, is the weekly e-mail newsletter on developments in the policy and political debate over reform." See recent policy analysis papers, "Perspectives on the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security," "The Better Deal: Estimating Rates of Return under a System of Individual Accounts," and "Large Accounts and Small Cash Deficits: Increasing Personal Account Size within a Fiscally Responsible Social Security Reform Framework."

Many liberal advocacy groups have let their Social Security websites lapse. Now, conservative newcomer For Our Grandchildren [www.forourgrandchildren.org] is making its site an integral part of an aggressive campaign to promote replacing part of Social Security with private accounts. Launched just over a year ago with a hefty grant from Oregon window-manufacturing magnate Dick Wendt, the group includes a Who's Who of the private-accounts movement. Besides offering links to Cato Institute reports and current news articles, the site incorporates many of the cutting-edge features— online fundraisers, Web logs, animated cartoons, e-mail alerts—being used so effectively by Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean.

"The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities [www.cbpp.org] is a left-of-center research outfit that churns out lucid and well-documented analyses of the effects of policy proposals, including those involving Social Security, on low-income Americans. The group's research supports its view that most privatization proposals are bad news for the needy—and are costly, to boot." See "Low Wage Earners: Options for Improving Their Retirement Income."

"AARP [www.aarp.org], the premier advocacy and consumer group for Americans age 50 and over, has serious doubts about replacing some parts of Social Security with private personal investment accounts. The site plainly lays out AARP's views, and it provides links to current events in its newsletter, to testimony and speeches by AARP officials, and to in-depth studies by the group's research arm." See "Have Plunging Stocks Killed Private Accounts in Social Security?" "Payday: Sooner or Later?" "Individual Accounts: Lessons from Sweden," and "Global Report on Aging."

"For the serious policy wonk, it's hard to beat the Web sites of Boston College's Center for Retirement Research [www.bc.edu/centers/crr] and the University of Michigan's Retirement Research Center [www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu]. Each has cutting-edge research on Social Security, the private pension system, and the economic, demographic, and behavioral factors affecting retirement. Boston College's site is a bit more graphically appealing and user-friendly." See "Can Faster Growth Save Social Security?" and "How Has the Shift to 401(k)s Affected the Retirement Age?"

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