Social Security beneficiaries may soon be able to keep their benefits while continuing to work. Currently, the law requires the government to deduct $1 in Social Security Benefits for every $3 a beneficiary makes over $17,000 per year. That limit is scheduled to increase to $30,000 by 2002, but that does not help currently employed beneficiaries who are losing all their benefits.

But a new bill with strong support in Congress could erase that earnings limit altogether for people aged 65 to 69. And though President Clinton initially said he would veto any such measure that was not part of more comprehensive Social Security legislation, he has since expressed support for the bill.

America will face a labor shortage in the coming decades as the Baby Boom generation retires, so repealing the earnings test does make sense. Penalizing seniors who wish to continue working serves little purpose.