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Ideas for reform churn up opposition from advocacy groups

With Social Security’s insolvency looming in about seven years, new proposals are emerging to reform a program that provides benefits for about 75 million Americans — yet the biggest advocacy groups for seniors are balking at many of the suggested changes.

One of the recent suggestions is from the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan policy analysis and research group. It has proposed that the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for Social Security should be limited in size for those with the largest benefits and highest lifetime income.

Jessica Hall is a retirement reporter for MarketWatch. She was an Age Boom Academy Fellow with Columbia University and completed the Leadership Exchange on Ageism. She previously worked at Mainebiz, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where she and her team earned a Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism for a series on aging. She spent 17 years at Reuters, covering mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications and airlines. She started her career in Baltimore at The Daily Record and Baltimore Business Journal. She has freelanced for Barron’s and other publications.