Watch October 3 Livestream of Securing Our Future: A Tri-State Social Security Forum

Americans work hard and pay into Social Security. If Washington doesn’t take action, in ten years Social Security could be cut by 20%. It’s time for both parties to come together and agree on a bipartisan solution.
 
Join AARP offices from Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa for Securing Our Future, a discussion about solutions to protect and save Social Security for generations to come. Moderated by Dr. Eric Jepsen of the University of South Dakota, you’ll hear different perspectives to questions about the future of Social Security.
 
We’ll be joined by two national experts on Social Security who will each give us their perspective on the future of this critical program.

For more information, visit aarp.org/ProtectSocialSecurity.

This forum was held at the Stoney Creek Hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday, October 3, 2024.

Watch Forum Livestream On Demand

Meet the Panelists:

Max Richtman, President/CEO
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

As one of the nation’s leading advocates for Social Security and Medicare, Richtman is a prominent expert on seniors’ issues. Max is a former staff director of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and 16-year veteran of Capitol Hill. He has testified before House and Senate committees and provided expert commentary during appearances on CNN, C-Span, FOX, MSNBC, CBS, and Pacifica radio networks.

Richtman has participated in hundreds of Congressional Town Hall meetings across the country and has been a featured speaker at national and state conferences on aging. His writings on seniors’ issues have been published in Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Hill, MarketWatch, CNN.com, and CNBC.com, among others.


Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy
Cato Institute

In this role, Boccia specializes in federal spending, budget process, economic implications of rising debt, and Social Security and Medicare reform. She has advised Presidents and members of Congress on Social Security policy for more than a decade and has testified before congressional committees in the U.S. House, Senate, and the Social Security Board of Advisors.

Boccia is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and her work has been widely covered, including in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among other major outlets. She frequently appears on CSPAN, PBS, and NPR—and she was a featured expert on AARP’s 2016 Social Security Solutions Tour. A native of Augsburg, Germany, Boccia earned MA and BS degrees summa cum laude in economics from George Mason University.


Moderated by:
Eric Jepsen, PhD, Professor/Interim Chair of the Department of Political Science and Director of the W.O. Farber Center for Civic Leadership
University of South Dakota

Professor Jepsen teaches classes on comparative politics, international relations, democracy, authoritarianism, and the politics of economic development.

His research has been published in the Journal of Politics, World Development, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Polity and Society, Latin American Policy, International Studies Perspectives, and by various academic presses. His research interests revolve around subnational development policies in federal countries—in particular, India and Mexico—within the constraints and opportunities of the global economy. He was a 2012-13 Fulbright-Nehru fellow in India.