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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1957)
52nd Year M EDFORD United Press ull Leased Wir 2nd SECTION Social Security Administration Assures People it's Not in Red By LOUIS CASSELS United Press Correspondent Washington !W An organiz tion with $22,500,000,000 in liquid assets is being kept busy these days assuring its clients that it is not going broke. The organization is the Social Security administration. The clients who are concerned about its solvency are oldsters and not-so-oldsters who have built their retirement plans around month ly social security checks. They have been telephoning, writing and calling in person at social security offices to inquire about published reports that the government's huge old age and survivors' insurance program is "running into the red." Their inquiries would be easy to answer if social security of ficials could dismiss the whole thing as a wild rumor. But the truth, as usual, is a good deal more complicated than that even if no more alarming. It is a fact that social security, for the first time in its 20-year history, is paying out more money for benefits this year than it is collecting in payroll taxes. Interest Bridges Gap Interest payments on the $22,- 500,000,000 worth of government bonds in the social security trust fund will bridge the gap between income and outgo during 1957, and will leave a surplus of about one million dollars to be added to the trust fund at the end of the year. So there's no red ink on the social security books yet. Next year, however, the old age insurance system may ac tually show a small deficit, even after interest payments from the trust fund are figured in. By 1959, it will be necessary to dip into the trust fund re serves for perhaps as much as 750 million dollars to balance the books. Obviously, if this trend con tinued very long it would lead to bankruptcy even in an or ganization with m.-re than 22 billion dollars in reserves. But social security officials say there is no danger that it will continue past 1959. A law already ' on the books provides Ike Signs Public Works and Wafer Bill Washington W President Eisenhower reluctantly signed Monday a public works and wa ter development bill packed with 700 million dollars worth of projects added by Congress over administration protests. He went on record with a spe cial statement criticizing the legislators' inconsistency in add ing the unbudgeted local pro jects while demanding economy in other fields. The bill appropriates $858, 094,323 for civil functions of the Army Corps of Engineers and units of the Interior Depart ment to start or continue work in the current fiscal year on res ervoirs, .rivers and harbors and flood control projects. Elkhart Lake, Wis. (TP) Officials of the Road America 500-mile race, planned for Sept. 6, indicated today a deer in the bush is worth two in the road. They will shoo an overabund ance of deer away from the four-mile circuit with a special "hunting" p rty a few days be fore the race. SOBBING SIMS SAYS:- . "Why pay more when you can buy the BEST for so little?" SCHWINH SPITFIRE BICYCLES 26" for 8 or 9 years & up.4995 24" for 7 to 8 years ;4895 20" for 5 to 7 years .4495 r Robin Hood English Bike 26" for 10 years and up with 3-speed Gears Front Hand Brake and Foot Brake for added safety Monarch Rocket Bikes 20" - $39.95 26" 23 North Fir Sr. SiiS MEDFORD, OREGON, that the social security payroll tax, now 2',i per cent-each on employers and employees, will go up to 234 per cent each at the start of 1960. This increase in revenue will put social security safely back into the black. And although benefit payments will continue to rise in the future, so will the payroll tax. ProTide Automatic Increases Congress has provided for automatic increases every five years through 1975, if the law remains as is, the tax will final ly level off in 1975 at 414 per cent for employers, 4Vt per cent for employees, a total of 8Vi jper cent. With this kind of money com ing in, social security and its clients can face the future with confidence. Projections by chief actuary Robert J. Myers indicate that social security will show a surplus every year after 1959 until at least 2010. By that time the trust funds is expected to reach $115,962,000,000. Myers' figures show the trust fund interest payments combin ed. But a Congress meeting 60 years hence could avoid the downward by another slight Up ward revision of the payroll tax. Social security benefits for re tired workers now range from a minimum of S24 to a maxi mum of $108.50 a month for an individual. For a couple, both of whom are over 65, the month ly check may be as high as $162.80. If a future Congress should decide to raise these benefits witlftut a compensat ing increase in the payroll tax that would of course throw the actuaries' computatijns out of gear. The temporary dip into red ink which lies directly ahead of social security was forseen by the actuaries when the present schedule of tax increases was enacted by Congress in 1956. But it has come a little sooner than 'the experts figured. Farmers Qualify The reason is that about 375, 000 self-employed farmers con siderably more than social secur ity expected have qualified for retirements benefits since Con gress extended social security coverage to them in 1954. Following the same formula which has been applied to all newly-covered groups in every extension of social security cov erage since 1937, Congress pro vided a short-cut to benefits for farmers who were already ap proaching or past 65 when the laws was passed. They could qualify for lifetime benefit checks by paying social security taxes on their farm earnings for two crop years. This was a windfall for many elderly farmers. For example, a farm couple past 65 could pay as little at $24 in taxes in 1955 and 1956, and start drawing checks for $142.50 a month in 1957. Although the resulting rush of over-65 farmers to social se curity offices has raised costs above expectation in 1957, of ficials point out that this is a "one-time" problem which will have no significant effect on the long-range financial soundness of the insurance system. . Social security is not likely to encounter a similar problem in the future, because there are no more large groups of seople to be brought under coverage. About 90 per cent of the nation's work force is now covered by $5488 24" - $46.95 $47.95 CYCLE & HOBBY SHOP - Phone SP 2-2472 TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1957 social security, and another 5 j s per cent by other government j jng Friday, was reported in sat programs. lisfactory condition. - Makes of cars driven by Percent reporting . j motorists interviewed improvement ' . , . Ford 88.9 , Chevrolet - 89 "r Plymouth 94.1 ? Buick 85.7 t i OidsmobHe '85.5 . f, Cadillac '. ;87.0 Pontiac ' 89.7 Chrysler 87 J5 Dodge 95 ' AH Other Makes 93.0 Price 10 Cents Tribune -Full Leased Wire Pages 1 to 6 Washington El Chairman Francis E. Walter (D-Pa.) of the House Committee on un-American Activities entered George town University hospital Mon day for treatment of a broken Over Labor Day... t est this completely new gasoline in vour car J 7??-t 'i I ':V' 1 4 i " :' : III i- J.;i H-v'" I 'iij 8 out of 10 owners of all kinds of cars report immediate improvement! 8ased uooo an bidepeixjent tabulation resulting from interviews with over 13,000 purchasers o Richfield Boron Gasoline. West's first arid only BORON ' , "-"rtf- ' fry,' Registration Set For Jacksonville schools will open for registration and first day classes on Monday, September 9 at 8:54 a.m. High school students may register on Sept. 5 through 7 from 1 to 4 p.m. The cafeteria will open the first day with meals costing 20 cents for grades one to eight and 25 cents for grades nine through 12. First grade students will be asked to bring health and birth certificates. Children six years old by Nov. 15 should contact Francis Guidry, grade school principal, before school starts. New students entering should &&&&& W Jacksonville bring old report cards and trans fer slips. Grades one to three will meet in the main buildings. Tile Jacksonville faculty will meet Sept. 5 and 6 to work on in-service program and devise ways of putting new ideas into operation. HEAT ON PIGEONS New York (If) The heat will be on for pigeons if the American Museum of Natural History has its way. The mu seum Monday asked the city planning commission to approve $65,000 for an electrical system to shoo pigeons. Since this remarkable new Boron motor fuel was introduced exclusively in. the West by Richfield last May, hundreds of thousands of motorists have tried it. Over eighty-nine percent of those reportin g to us say it gives immediate improvement! Have you tried new Richfield Boron Gasoline in your car? If not, why don't you try a tankful over the holiday ahead? We think you will agree with others that Richfield Boron Gasoline gives immediate results: far more power... faster pickup... a smoother, quieter running engine. You see, this completely new gasoline actually afters combustion in your car's engine eliminates those "wild' wasteful explosions that cause knock, roughness, loss of power. So over Labor Day when you need gasoline, drive in at your helpful Richfield dealer's for top octane Richfield Boron. You'll set new perform ance records in your own carl .fAty.-.-";. In a class by itself since 1830 66 PROOF Biondad Scotch Whisky Schieffalin & Co., New gasoline y s' P-Zr 1
