[Economic Outlook, Highlights from FY 1994 to FY 2001, FY 2002 Baseline Projections]
[III. Major Functions of the Federal Government]
[14.  Income Security]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]


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                          14.  INCOME SECURITY

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

                          Table 14-1.  Federal Resources in Support of Income Security
                                          (Dollar amounts in millions)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                        Percent
                                Function 600                                     1993        2001       Change:
                                                                                Actual     Estimate    1993-2001
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spending:
  Discretionary budget authority............................................     31,918      39,546         24%
  Mandatory outlays.........................................................    175,949     213,012         21%
Credit Activity:
   Direct loan disbursements................................................         85          20        -76%
   Guaranteed loans.........................................................  ..........         83          NA
Tax expenditures............................................................     74,150     131,900         78%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NA = Not applicable.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Declining Number of Families in Poverty

  A good indicator of the Nation's state of income security is the 
poverty rate. Since passage of the Clinton-Gore Administration's 
economic plan in 1993, the poverty rate has declined from 15.1 percent 
in 1993 to 11.8 percent in 1999, a rate lower than any other year in the 
1980s or 1990s. Furthermore, poverty among those aged 65 or older in 
1999 was at an all-time low of 9.7 percent; and poverty among children 
in families declined from 22 percent in 1993, a height last seen in the 
mid-1960s, to 16.3 percent in 1999, lower than any other level in the 
1980s or 1990s. Also noteworthy is that the 1999 poverty rate of black 
children, while still a high 32.7 percent, was the lowest level ever 
measured.
  These improvements have been driven by an historic economic recovery 
and landmark legislation designed to move families from welfare to work 
by making work pay and providing support to low-income working families. 
As evidence of this legislation's success, less than five percent of 
families with children did not work in 1999, compared to nine percent in 
1993. Furthermore, the poverty rate among working families with children 
declined from 12.6 percent in 1993 to 11 percent in 1999.

  Earned Income Tax Credit: The decline in poverty among working 
families tells only part of the story. As the growing economy increased 
employment opportunity, expansions to the Earned Income Tax Credit 
(EITC) in 1993 were making work pay. The Administration's 1993 expansion 
increased benefits significantly for those with two or more children, 
and allowed workers who live with their children at least half of the 
tax year to claim a credit. As a result of these expansions, credits 
paid through the EITC program increased from $15.5 billion in 1993 to 
nearly $31 billion in 1999, and the number of families receiving 
assistance from the program increased by a quarter, from 15 million to 
19 million.
  The EITC also has been effective in attracting more workers to the 
labor market. One study estimates that the EITC alone was responsible 
for 34 percent of the increase in annual employment of single mothers 
from 1992 to 1996.

Ending Welfare as We Know It

  Even before the 1996 welfare reform legislation, many States were well 
on their way to changing their welfare programs to jobs programs. By 
granting Federal waivers, the Administration allowed 43 States--more 
than all previous Administrations combined--to

[[Page 164]]

require work, time-limit assistance, improve child support enforcement, 
and/or encourage parental responsibility. The vast majority of States 
have chosen to build on their welfare demonstration projects approved by 
the Administration in their implementation of welfare reform.
  In 1996, the President signed the Personal Responsibility and Work 
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), a bipartisan welfare plan that 
has dramatically changed the Nation's welfare system. The law replaced 
the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with the Temporary 
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides $16.7 
billion annually in block grants to the States. The law contains strong 
work requirements, time limits on assistance, performance bonuses to 
reward States for moving welfare recipients into jobs and reducing out-
of-wedlock births, State maintenance-of-effort requirements, 
comprehensive child support enforcement, and supports for families 
moving from welfare to work including increased funding for child care. 
State strategies are making a difference in the success of welfare 
reform, specifically in job placement, child care, and transportation.

  Cash Assistance: Since January 1993, the welfare rolls have fallen by 
nearly 60 percent--from 14.1 million to 5.8 million--resulting in the 
fewest number of people on welfare since 1968. The percent of Americans 
on welfare is now at 2.1 percent, the lowest level since 1963. In August 
1999, the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) reported that the single 
most important factor contributing to this historic decline is the 
implementation of welfare reform. Of the caseload reduction from 1996 to 
1998, the CEA estimated that approximately one-third was due to Federal 
and State policy changes resulting from welfare reform and about 10 
percent was due to the strong economy.
  Employment: At President Clinton's insistence, the 1996 welfare reform 
legislation included both rewards and penalties to encourage States to 
place people in jobs. According to reports filed by 46 States, more than 
1.2 million welfare recipients nationwide went to work in just the one-
year period between October 1998 and September 1999. Retention rates 
also were promising: 78 percent of those who got jobs were still working 
three months later. States also reported an average earnings increase of 
31 percent for former welfare recipients, from $2,027 in the first 
quarter of employment to $2,647 in the third quarter.
  The first three years of data on work activity since welfare reform 
also show that all States met the law's work participation requirements 
for overall work activity levels. Nationally, 38 percent of all welfare 
recipients were working or in work-related activities in 1999. The data 
also show that nationwide, the percentage of welfare recipients working 
has increased to nearly five times the level it was when the President 
took office, rising from seven percent in 1992 to an all-time high of 33 
percent in 1999. The vast majority of working recipients are in paid 
employment, with the remainder involved in community service or 
subsidized employment.

  Welfare-to-Work Grants: Because of the President's leadership, the 
1997 Balanced Budget Act included $3 billion over 1998 and 1999 for 
Welfare-to-Work grants to help States and local communities move long-
term welfare recipients and certain noncustodial parents into lasting, 
unsubsidized jobs. Funds can be used for job creation, job placement and 
job retention efforts, including wage subsidies to private employers and 
other critical post-employment support services. The Department of Labor 
provides oversight, but most of the dollars are placed through local 
business-led boards into the hands of those who are on the front lines 
of the welfare reform effort. For 1998 and 1999, the Administration 
awarded 190 competitive grants that support innovative local strategies 
to help noncustodial parents and individuals with limited English 
proficiency, disabilities, substance abuse problems, or a history of 
domestic violence get and keep employment. This program also is 
discussed in Chapter 11, ``Education, Training, Employment, and Social 
Services.''
  Welfare Recipient Hiring: The Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit, enacted in 
the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, offers employers a tax credit equal to 
35 percent of the first $10,000 in wages in the first year of 
employment, and 50 percent of the first $10,000 in wages in the second 
year for a total credit of up to

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$8,500 for each welfare recipient hired and retained. This credit 
complements the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which offers a credit of up 
to $2,400 for the first year of wages for eight groups of job seekers. 
From 1997 to 2000, employers were eligible to claim these tax credits 
for over 1.4 million newly-employed welfare recipients and other 
disadvantaged individuals. Both credits are currently available through 
December 2001. These credits also are discussed in Chapter 11.
  In addition, at the President's urging, the Welfare to Work 
Partnership was launched in May 1997 to lead the national business 
effort to hire people from the welfare rolls. The Partnership began with 
105 participating businesses, and has now grown to more than 20,000 
businesses of all sizes and industries. Since 1997, these businesses 
have hired an estimated 1.1 million welfare recipients, surpassing the 
challenge the President set in May 1998. In addition, the Small Business 
Administration is addressing the unique and vital role of small 
businesses that employ over half of the private work force, by helping 
small businesses throughout the country connect with job training 
organizations and job-ready welfare recipients. Federal agencies also 
have played a role and have hired nearly 50,000 welfare recipients.

  Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Significant components of the President's 
comprehensive effort to reduce teen pregnancy became law when the 
President signed the welfare reform legislation. PRWORA requires 
unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a 
supervised setting; encourages ``second chance homes'' to provide teen 
parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million 
a year for five years in new funding for State abstinence education 
activities. Data show that teen birth rates have declined nationwide by 
20 percent from 1991 to 1999, and are now at the lowest rate on record 
since tracking began 60 years ago. These improvements are seen among 
younger and older teens, married and unmarried teens, all States and all 
ethnic and racial groups.
  Rewards for High Performing States: The 1996 welfare reform 
legislation included $200 million annually for awards to States that 
perform especially well in achieving the goals of TANF and $100 million 
for States that reduce out-of-wedlock births. In December 1999, the 
President announced that 27 States were awarded the first high 
performance bonuses to reward superior results or improvement in moving 
people from welfare to work. A year later, 28 States received the second 
round of awards. Each year, the $200 million in bonuses went to the top 
10 States with the best records in each of four categories related to 
moving parents on welfare into jobs and their success in the work force.
  Through regulations to award future high performance bonuses, the 
Administration also has put in place new incentives for States to 
provide programs that help working families succeed and encourage the 
formation of two-parent families. The final regulation retains the 
original job entry and success in the work force measures, and adds 
measures for participation in Medicaid and the State Children's Health 
Insurance Program (SCHIP), participation in the Food Stamp program, 
receipt of child care subsidies by eligible families, and family 
formation and stability. These new measures will ensure that welfare 
reform will continue to move millions of families from dependence to 
independence by encouraging work, supporting working families to help 
them succeed and stay off welfare, and increasing the number of children 
living with married parents. A total of $140 million in bonus funds is 
available annually for the work measures, with $60 million available for 
the work support and family formation measures.
  In 1999 and 2000, HHS awarded bonuses of $20 million to each of four 
States and the District of Columbia for achieving the Nation's largest 
decreases in out-of-wedlock births. These bonuses were awarded under the 
welfare reform law, which provided $100 million annually for up to five 
States with the largest reductions in the proportion of out-of-wedlock 
births that also show decreases in their abortion rates. Nationwide, the 
1999 birth rate for unmarried women was six percent lower than its high 
in 1994, and three percent lower than in 1992.

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Creating Comprehensive Support for Working Families

  Child Care: The number of children with parents who work outside of 
the home is higher than ever before and child care expenses are often 
the second or third largest item in a low-income working family's 
household budget. The 1996 welfare reform law increased child care 
funding by $4 billion over six years to provide child care assistance to 
families moving off welfare and to other low-income families. The 
Administration also secured additional discretionary funds for subsidies 
and quality enhancement, which were major components of its 
comprehensive child care initiative to address the struggles our 
Nation's working parents face in finding child care they can afford, 
trust and rely on and that will help to prepare their children for 
success in school.
  An important element of that initiative was to increase the 
availability of child care subsidies. The Child Care and Development 
Fund (CCDF) provides grants to States to subsidize and improve the 
quality of care for low- and moderate-income children. Under this 
Administration, Federal funding for child care subsidies has more than 
doubled, increasing from $1.8 billion in 1993 to an estimated $4.4 
billion in 2001. In 2001, the discretionary contribution to the CCDF 
increased by $817 million, bringing total discretionary child care 
spending to $2 billion and allowing the program to serve nearly 150,000 
additional children. Combined with the child care funds provided in 
welfare reform, the new discretionary funds will enable the program to 
serve over 2.1 million children monthly in 2001.

  Child Support: An important component of the Administration's policies 
to help working families is to ensure that unmarried parents receive the 
support they are entitled to under the law from noncustodial parents. 
The 1996 welfare reform law included significant provisions to 
strengthen child support enforcement. Among other changes, the 
legislation streamlined paternity establishment procedures, provided for 
State and Federal registries of newly hired employees, established 
statewide support collection and distribution centers, and initiated 
tough new penalties when child support obligations are not met. In 
addition, in 1998, the President signed legislation enacting tougher 
penalties for parents who repeatedly fail to support children living in 
another State or who flee across State lines. Today, parents who owe 
child support can have their wages garnisheed, their bank accounts 
seized, their Federal loans denied, and their tax refunds withheld to 
help make up what they owe.
  Since the Administration took office, child support collections have 
doubled from $9 billion in 1993 to $18 billion in 2000. The number of 
fathers taking responsibility for their children by establishing 
paternity rose to a record 1.5 million in 1999 (the most recent data 
available), nearly triple the 1993 figure of 554,000. In addition, a new 
program established under PRWORA has identified nearly 900,000 
delinquent parents with accounts valued at $3 billion. In 2001, net 
Federal costs for child support will be an estimated $2.4 billion.
  Child support is an important source of income for poor children. One 
study estimates that in 1997, child support lifted a half million 
children out of poverty, and that for poor children who receive child 
support, it represents, on average, over one-quarter of their family's 
income.

  Individual Development Accounts (IDAs): In 1992 during his campaign, 
the President proposed Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) as a way 
to empower low-income families to save for a first home, a post-
secondary education, or to start a new business. The 1996 welfare reform 
law authorized the use of TANF grants to create IDAs. In addition, in 
1998 the President signed legislation creating a five-year $125 million 
demonstration program. Households that are eligible for TANF, qualify 
for the EITC, or have incomes below 200 percent of the Federal 
guidelines, and have a net worth below $10,000 are eligible to 
participate in the demonstration. In 1999 and 2000, the Department of 
Health and Human Services awarded nearly $20 million to 65 grantees that 
will establish over 16,000 savings accounts for low-income workers. The 
2001 Budget included $25 million for IDAs to create over 20,500 new 
accounts.
  Food Stamps: As parents leave welfare for work, their continued access 
to nutritional as

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sistance is a critical factor in making the transition to self-
sufficiency. It is also important that States reach out to low-income 
working families who may be eligible for food stamps since the 
assistance could keep them off welfare. In 1993, the food stamp program 
assisted nearly 27 million individuals at a cost of $23.6 billion. Both 
participation and funding have declined dramatically since then due to 
the strong economy, the success of moving people from welfare to work, 
changes in eligibility rules, and other consequences of welfare reform. 
In 2001, food stamps is expected to serve approximately 17.5 million 
people at a cost of $19.6 billion.
  The Administration has taken a number of actions to simplify program 
administration for States, make the program more workable and easier for 
low-income working families to navigate, provide guidance to States on 
what their responsibilities are and how to improve practices, and use 
bonuses and sanctions to hold States accountable. In 1999 and 2000 the 
President took executive actions to help ensure working families who 
need food stamps have access, including: regulations to provide for 
transitional food stamp benefits for 3,000 individuals leaving TANF in 
2001, with 20,000 individuals receiving assistance when fully 
implemented; longer reporting cycles for almost 200,000 individuals in 
2001, with four million individuals benefitting when fully implemented; 
reviews of State processes to ensure that States comply with program 
rules; a public education campaign; and new steps that allow States to 
reinvest liabilities incurred due to high payment error rates in 
activities that improve access. In addition, a regulatory action making 
it easier for some recipients to own a car and still receive food stamps 
followed by legislation proposed by the Administration permitting States 
to use more generous TANF rules for vehicles when determining food stamp 
eligibility, in combination, will benefit 76,000 individuals in 2001, 
and when fully implemented, will benefit nearly 460,000 individuals, 
most of whom live in working families with children.

  Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and 
Children (WIC): WIC provides vouchers for nutritious supplemental food 
packages, nutrition education and counseling, and health and 
immunization referrals to low-income women, infants, and children. 
During this Administration, funding has grown by over 40 percent to over 
$4 billion, and the program now helps nearly half of all infants. In 
2000, approximately 7.2 million individuals participated in the program 
monthly and funding for 2001 is sufficient to support participation by 
just over 7.3 million people.
  Income Assistance to Aged, Blind and Disabled Individuals: The 
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, administered by the Social 
Security Administration (SSA), provides benefits to needy aged, blind, 
and disabled adults and children. On average in 2000, 6.3 million 
individuals received Federal SSI benefits on a monthly basis. These 
benefits totaled $31 billion in 2000. SSI uses the same disability 
eligibility criteria as the Social Security Disability Insurance 
Program. Policies affecting both programs are discussed in Chapter 15, 
``Social Security.''
  SSI Children: The 1996 PRWORA legislation created new eligibility 
criteria for children to receive SSI to ensure that only needy children 
with severe disabilities received benefits. Between 1990 and 1996, the 
number of children eligible for SSI benefits more than tripled from 
approximately 309,000 to more than 955,000. This growth was due, in 
part, to the difficulty in determining whether a child's impairment was 
of comparable severity to an impairment that would disable an adult. 
PRWORA eliminated this somewhat broader standard, and created a new 
definition of childhood disability that states a child's impairment, or 
combination of impairments, is considered disabling if it causes marked 
and severe functional limitations.
  In February 1997, SSA published final interim rules that applied the 
new definition of disability to applicants as well as 288,000 child 
beneficiaries, approximately 100,000 of whom would ultimately lose 
coverage. To ease the transition for the families of these children, an 
Administration proposal was enacted to continue Medicaid coverage to 
children who lost their SSI benefits as a result of PRWORA. SSA has 
since identified ways to clarify the rules and simplify the processes. 
The final regulations went into effect on January 2, 2001.

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  Unemployment Compensation: Unemployment compensation, overseen by the 
Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, provides 
benefits to individuals who are temporarily out of work through no fault 
of their own and whose employer has previously paid payroll taxes to the 
program. State payroll taxes finance the basic benefits paid out of a 
dedicated trust fund. States set benefit levels and eligibility 
criteria; benefits are not means-tested and are taxable. Regular 
benefits are typically available for up to 26 weeks of unemployment. 
Additional benefits are often provided when unemployment is high and 
rising.
  Spending on the unemployment compensation program varies based on 
economic conditions and demonstrates the Administration's success in 
achieving economic growth and low unemployment. In 1993, the 
unemployment rate was seven percent, and total spending on those 
benefits exceeded $36 billion. By 2000, as a result of the strong 
economy and the wide availability of jobs, the unemployment rate was 
four percent and total spending on those benefits was less than $22 
billion--a decrease of almost 40 percent since 1993.
  President Clinton worked to improve access to unemployment 
compensation to help new parents afford family leave. A Department of 
Labor regulation, effective in August 2000, allows States to create 
experimental birth and adoption unemployment compensation programs that 
provide partial wage replacement for parents caring for newborns and 
newly adopted children.

Addressing the Gaps in Welfare Reform

  Restoration of Benefits for Legal Immigrants: The Administration 
believes that legal immigrants should have the same economic 
opportunity, and bear the same responsibility, as other members of 
society. Upon signing the 1996 PRWORA law, the President pledged to work 
toward reversing the cuts in benefits to legal immigrants that were 
unrelated to the goal of moving people from welfare to work. Since that 
time, the President's leadership has resulted in significant benefit 
restorations for immigrants.
  More than half a million noncitizens would have been affected by 
PRWORA's Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility restrictions in 
2003. Legislation enacted after PRWORA restored eligibility to about 
three quarters of these individuals. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and 
the Noncitizens' Benefit Clarification and Other Technical Amendments 
Act of 1998 provided $11.5 billion over five years to restore Medicaid 
and SSI to 380,000 disabled and elderly legal immigrants who were living 
in the U.S. when the welfare law was enacted on August 22, 1996. These 
restorations provided critical assistance to legal immigrants who were 
unable to work to support themselves.
  PRWORA also made most immigrants ineligible for food stamps, an 
important source of nutrition assistance for many working families, as 
well as for those unable to work. PRWORA would have denied food stamp 
eligibility to almost 600,000 noncitizens in 2002. Legislation enacted 
after PRWORA restored eligibility to approximately 30 percent of these 
individuals. In response to the Administration's request, the 
Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 
included $818 million over five years to restore food stamp benefits to 
an estimated 175,000 elderly, disabled, and other needy immigrants, 
including 45,000 children who lawfully resided in the United States as 
of August 22, 1996.
  These accomplishments restored important nutrition and income security 
protections to large categories of vulnerable noncitizens. Nevertheless, 
most noncitizen adults (except for refugees and certain other special 
categories of immigrants) are ineligible for food stamps unless and 
until they acquire 40 quarters of employment coverage, even if they have 
been in the U.S. since before enactment of PRWORA. With regard to SSI, 
similar restrictions apply to most noncitizens entering the U.S. after 
August 22, 1996. Immigrants entering the U.S. after that date also are 
banned from Medicaid until they have been in the United States at least 
five years, a provision that is expected to affect 430,000 immigrants in 
2003.

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Employee Retirement Benefits

  Federal Employee Retirement Benefits: The Civil Service Retirement 
System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) 
provide pension coverage for approximately 2.7 million active employees, 
and pay out benefits to about 2.4 million retired employees and 
survivors. Both systems provide a defined benefit pension. FERS 
employees (those hired since January 1, 1984) are also covered by Social 
Security and a defined contribution plan--the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). 
CSRS employees may contribute to TSP but do not receive the automatic 
and matching agency contributions enjoyed by FERS enrollees. Since 1993, 
the number of annuitants (retired employees and survivors) has grown by 
10 percent, from 2.2 million to 2.4 million, and the annuity payments 
have increased by over one-third, from $35 billion to $47 billion.
  Over the past eight years, the service provided to this growing 
customer population has improved markedly. For example, in 1993 there 
was no self-servicing of customer service requests. This has increased 
to over 30 percent today. This improved service is being delivered more 
efficiently. For example, with fewer staff, processing times for annuity 
claims have been reduced substantially. This better and more efficient 
service is reflected in customer satisfaction surveys, which show an 
improvement from around 80 percent in 1993 to well over 90 percent today 
in annuitant satisfaction with the handling of service requests. Other 
notable accomplishments since 1993 include preserving the benefits 
structure during an extremely tight budgetary environment, providing 
through legislative action a more equitable treatment of employees 
placed in the wrong retirement system, and creating a greater incentive 
for employees to save by enabling them to contribute to the TSP 
immediately upon being hired.

  Private Pensions: The Department of Labor's Pension Benefit Guaranty 
Corporation (PBGC) insures against company bankruptcy the pensions of 
about 42 million workers and retirees who earn defined benefit pensions. 
Before 1992, PBGC's books could not be audited. Worse, PBGC had for many 
years run an accounting deficit; that is, each year its liabilities had 
exceeded its assets. After well-publicized bankruptcies in the airline 
and steel industries, PBGC had for some years been talked of as the next 
savings and loan crisis.
  That situation has turned around. With improved internal controls, 
PBGC has received ``clean'' audit opinions since 1993. Primarily due to 
the Administration's 1994 law (the Pension Protection Act) that 
increased PBGC revenues and also due to improved economic conditions and 
fewer bankruptcies, PBGC has been running annual surpluses and is 
predicted to end 2001 at $9 billion in the black. With its finances 
stabilized, PBGC is improving customer service. PBGC is working to 
shorten the time to calculate final benefit levels from six years in 
1997 to three years in 2002. (Retirees are getting approximate pensions 
while PBGC is setting final benefit levels.)
  Also at the Department of Labor, the Pension and Welfare Benefits 
Administration (PWBA) establishes and enforces safeguards to protect the 
roughly $4 trillion in private pension assets. More than 90 million 
participants and beneficiaries are now in private pension plans.
  PWBA is working to recover more benefits through customer assistance--
an estimated $54 million for 2001 compared to $15 million in 1995. 
During this period PWBA corrected prohibited transactions and recovered 
or protected plan assets totaling more than $1 billion. At the same 
time, PWBA is more speedily processing the exemptions that allow certain 
financial transactions that are needed by pension plans, reducing the 
time taken to 200 days in 2001, a 17 percent improvement from the 1999 
average of 242 days. PWBA has, moreover, simplified the annual report 
(the Form 5500) filed by companies that sponsor pensions. PWBA has also 
sped the processing of this data, in order to move more quickly to 
protect pensions and to keep participants better informed about their 
pension assets.

  Tax Incentives for Retirement Savings: The Federal Government 
encourages retirement savings by providing income tax benefits to both 
individuals and companies. These tax benefits have been expanded and 
also simplified so that more companies can offer

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pensions. The Administration developed the new SIMPLE pensions (Savings 
Incentive Match Plans for Employees), which is an easy way for companies 
to set up 401(k)-like retirement accounts for their workers. Generally, 
earnings devoted to workplace pension plans and to many traditional IRAs 
receive beneficial tax treatment in the year earned and ordinarily are 
taxed only in retirement, when lower tax rates usually prevail. 
Moreover, taxpayers can defer taxes on the interest and on the other 
gains that add value to these retirement accounts. The new Roth 
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) however, allow contributions to be 
made from after-tax earnings, but account earnings are free from tax 
when used in retirement, which is a novel tax benefit.
  President Clinton also signed into law expanded eligibility for 
deductible IRAs. So that more middle-income taxpayers with workplace 
retirement plans could open the valuable deductible IRAs, the Taxpayer 
Relief Act of 1997 generally doubled, over time, the income limits for 
participation. Previously, single taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes 
below $25,000 could open full deductible IRAs, with the maximum size of 
the IRA phasing out until the income limit of $35,000 was reached. 
Married taxpayers with joint returns were eligible at higher income 
levels, with a phase-out range of $40,000 to $50,000. Under the new law, 
the IRA phase-out ranges increase until the eligibility limits are 
$50,000 to $60,000 for single taxpayers (2005 and thereafter) and 
$80,000 to $100,000 for couples filing jointly (2007 and afterwards). 
This law also greatly expanded (to $150,000 to $160,000) the deductible 
IRA income limit for taxpayers not in workplace retirement plans but 
whose spouses are. Another law increased the maximum size of spousal 
IRAs for non-working spouses.
  Additionally, President Clinton succeeded in making IRAs more flexible 
through legislation enacted in the Health Insurance and Portability and 
Accountability Act of 1996. That law allows the long-term unemployed to 
make penalty-free withdrawals from IRAs in order to pay their health 
insurance premiums and also for large medical expenses.
  All the pension and retirement-saving tax incentives amount to an 
estimated $115 billion in 2001--decidedly the largest set of preferences 
in the income tax system--and nearly double the amount in 1993. Total 
tax expenditures included in this function have increased from $74 
billion in 1993 to an estimated $132 billion in 2001.
