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Higher levels of government should provide adequate resources when mandating functions to lower levels of government.

Services should be implemented and operated by the level of government that can most appropriately and efficiently deliver them.

Efforts to reform entitlement spending should recognize the following factors:

When economic conditions permit, states should accumulate budget reserves adequate to maintain services during recessions.

Deficit-reduction efforts should avoid cuts in programs that serve low- and moderate-income populations.

The federal government must strive for long-term fiscal balance.

Passing responsibilities down to lower levels of government should be undertaken primarily to place services closer to the people being served and to maximize administrative

Congress should allocate sufficient funding to strengthen the administrative capacity of the Social Security Administration (SSA) to better meet the needs of applicants and benefi

The number of years used to calculate benefits should not be increased beyond the 35 years designated in current law.

Policymakers should retain wage indexing of both the average indexed monthly earnings and the thresholds used in the formula for the Prim