Contact B'nai B'rith

1120 20th Street NW, Suite 300N Washington, D.C. 20036

info@bnaibrith.org

202-857-6600

Picture

B’nai B’rith International made headlines in the financial world this week, signing off on an encouraging annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report.

The statement was picked up by InsuranceNewsNet.com, “the leading, Web-based trade publication for insurance agents, home office personnel, and other professionals in the life, health and property/casualty industries.”

Read an excerpt, below:



B’nai B’rith International issued the following news release:

B’nai B’rith International is encouraged by the relative stability outlined in the 2014 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report, but concerned about the immediate need to address the funding challenges facing the Social Security Disability Insurance program (DI).

The big news out of the trustees report was the overall health of Social Security with a surplus of about $2.8 trillion, and income to the program set to exceed expenditures in 2014. These numbers are in line with last year’s projections and this year’s report expects Social Security’s surplus to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2020.

The other important but unsurprising “news” out of the report is that the DI trust fund is at risk of being depleted by 2016. B’nai B’rith International urges Congress to increase the DI’s allocation from the payroll tax–a measure which has been routinely carried out 11 times over the life of the program–or many vulnerable or impoverished people face dire consequences in their everyday lives.

“We’ve actually been aware that this would happen in or around 2016 since the DI’s tax allocation was last adjusted in 1994. But in the current political environment, adjusting the split between the two funds for the 12th time in Social Security’s history may be harder to do than it should be,” B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said.