The Plan for Reform
Transitioning Social Security to Solvency.
The Plan combines a permanent ownership-based retirement system, a finite transition from today’s OASI structure, and binding fiscal safeguards into one integrated proposal. It is the developed starting framework submitted to the Social Security Reform Working Group for independent examination, refinement, and advancement.
THE COMPLETE PROPOSAL
Destination, Transition, and Discipline
Permanent reform requires three things at once. The nation must define the retirement system it intends to have, establish a credible method for reaching it, and impose fiscal rules strong enough to prevent the transition from becoming another open-ended federal obligation.
The Plan integrates those requirements. The Goal defines the permanent system. The Transition protects existing commitments while shifting future retirement accruals toward funded ownership. Fiscal discipline limits mandatory financing, governs activation and annual priorities, and requires independent certification before implementation and closure.
The Goal
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The Transition
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Fiscal Discipline
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The Plan
THE STRUCTURAL OBJECTIVE
Honor Existing Commitments While Ending New Unfunded Accruals
The Plan applies to Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI). Disability Insurance, Medicare, and other federal programs remain outside its scope. Within OASI, the Plan closes new pay-as-you-go retirement accrual for the transition cohort while preserving benefits already in payment and retirement value already earned.
Benefits already in payment continue. Workers age 56 or older at implementation remain in legacy OASI. For younger workers, the retirement value attributable to preimplementation covered work is converted into participant-specific notional retirement credits. Postimplementation work earns retirement value through notional credits, funded PRA contributions, or both. Retirement Transition Certificates (RTCs) are separate benefit-deferral claims used to manage transition liquidity; they are not retirement accrual and are not PRA assets.
As legacy obligations decline and objective conditions are satisfied, funded PRA assets expand without adding a second mandatory charge above the existing OASI rate. Funded contributions begin or increase only after higher-priority obligations, required reserves, the two-year buffer, and the RTC-neutral funding test are satisfied. The transition ends only after legacy, notional, RTC, reserve, and closure obligations are satisfied or fully secured and the permanent system can operate independently.
Protect Commitments
Credit Earned Value
Build Funded Ownership
End PAYGO
BINDING COMMITMENTS
What the Plan Must Accomplish
01. Protect current beneficiaries.
Scheduled retirement benefits continue without interruption under the governing transition rules.
02. Honor retirement value already earned.
Honor retirement value already earned. The Plan recognizes preimplementation covered work and records the attributable value individually as notional retirement credits.
03. Continue retirement accrual without renewing PAYGO.
Workers younger than 56 and future entrants continue earning retirement value through the new system—using notional credits and funded PRA contributions as the transition advances—without creating new legacy OASI accruals for postimplementation work.
04. Remain within the existing financing ceiling.
The combined mandatory payroll-financing rate cannot exceed 10.6 percent, and the Plan cannot impose a separate mandatory PRA charge on top.
05. Use no borrowing or general revenue.
Transition obligations must be met from authorized dedicated resources and reserves, not shifted to taxpayers through federal debt or unrelated revenues.
06. Use objective activation and closure tests.
Use objective activation and closure tests. Funded PRAs begin or increase only after the required reserve, two-year 5 percent buffer, and RTC-neutral funding tests are satisfied. Final closure occurs only after all legacy, notional, RTC, reserve, and closure obligations are satisfied or fully secured.
07. Establish permanent funded ownership.
Establish permanent funded ownership. At final closure, both OASI tax obligations terminate. The employer’s former 5.3 percent OASI contribution becomes employee compensation, and each participant finances an individualized employee-only all-in contribution rate.
THE TWO PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS
Examine the Destination and the Path
The Goal explains the permanent ownership-based retirement system. The Transition explains how the nation moves from today’s OASI structure to that end state while protecting existing commitments and enforcing the Plan’s fiscal rules.
The Goal
The Transition
PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
A Developed Framework for Independent Review
The Plan is sufficiently developed to permit serious actuarial, economic, legal, administrative, investment, distributional, and legislative examination. No current provision is immune from evidence-based challenge or revision.
The public Plan explains the architecture. The public Technical Specifications for Scoring page explains the governing technical standard at an appropriate level. The controlled Technical Specifications for Scoring, Version 2.8, and integrated cash-flow model define the governing rules and computational implementation required for qualified professional review.
Formal scoring, sensitivity testing, adverse-scenario analysis, and independent replication must determine whether the Plan can satisfy its stated benefit, financing, transition, and closure commitments. The Working Group supplies the forum through which qualified professionals can identify weaknesses, compare alternatives, and strengthen the proposal before broader institutional or legislative consideration.
THE FORMAL RESOURCE
Review the Public Plan and Technical Specifications
This page provides the integrated public overview. The approved public Plan provides a stable format suitable for circulation, printing, citation, and professional review. The public Technical Specifications for Scoring page explains how the proposal is structured for evaluation without publishing the controlled governing TSS or model.
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