Here is a great post from Americablog. It is by Steve Kyle. He teaches economics at Cornell University.
This post says what I have been trying to say for years about Social Security. Mr. Kyle does it in a clear way and I am posting his entire post on the subject.
GOP talking about cutting Social Security again, when the real budge problem is health care
by Steve Kyle (NY) on 2/07/2010 07:01:00 PM
Two Republicans, Alan Greenspan and Hank Paulson, sat on Meet the Press this morning and told us that there is no way out of our fiscal mess that doesn’t involve cutting entitlements. And first on their list is Social Security.
First, why should anyone believe what these two guys have to say? They presided over the monetary policy and the fiscal policy that got us into our current economic mess.
Second, why on earth does the supposedly he-said/she-said addicted mainstream press have only discredited Republicans to talk about economics? Aren’t there no Democrats available?
Third, and most important, can we PLEASE kill the zombie-like reawakening of the we-must-cut-Social-Security-benefits meme once and for all? We last killed this lie a few years ago when Bush Jr. had a run at it, but in fact it has been around since 1933. Republicans HATE Social Security for two reasons, one stupid and one understandable (but also stupid if you actually care about retirees):
- The stupid reason: Social Security is "socialist." Well, sure it is and what of it? If people actually like it (and there is no question they do) are we really going to cut it just because it is something socialists happen to like also?
- The understandable reason: If I were a Republican, I too would hate the program that is so popular, it got Democrats elected and reelected for half a century. (Incidentally, this is also why they hate single payer health care. If we ever actually put it in place it would be so popular that the party who got credit for it would be cemented in power for the rest of our lives (which would be much markedly longer, incidentally). Only people who never travel to other countries (like most Republicans) could imagine that single payer wouldn’t be popular. If you doubt what I say, just look at Medicare, our current seniors-only single payer government health care system. Even the tea-baggers like it.
Here are some facts. Social Security, if it has a long run problem at all, won’t run in to any problems for at least three more decades by even the most conservative estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Even then, the "crisis" is that the SS trust fund will run out and SS will have to rely on current SS taxes like it did for most of its history. In other words, the "crisis" is that instead of having a steadily rising value, social security payments will be stuck at current levels, meaning us worker bees today will retire "only" at the level current retirees are getting rather than the steady increases we are promised. Of course, it is entirely possible and even probable that this "crisis" will never materialize at all, so it is silly to worry about it now when there are far bigger problems out there.
What are those far bigger problems? Medicare and Medicaid! They really ARE going to eat the entire federal budget in a decade or two if we don’t pass some health care reforms.
To make it crystal clear, let me reiterate. Health care costs are going to bankrupt us if we don’t pass some real reforms. Social Security won’t bankrupt us. Lumping them together is just a way for the Republicans to attack Social Security – something they have hated for almost 80 years, and something which still works pretty well. And it will continue to work pretty well if we just leave it alone. Health care won’t.
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