The 75th anniversary of the signing of Social Security into law is cause for celebration as it marks a milestone of longevity and signals a promising future for one of America's greatest social policies.
I admit that I have a strong personal connection, having served in the Social Security Administration, and knowing that this policy, which has helped three generations of Americans, is one of my grandfather's proudest legacies.
My celebration is tempered by great concern. There are falsehoods and ill-informed distortions unleashed against Social Security by those who seek political gain. Their goal is to create a climate of fear around the future of Social Security. Repeatedly, they tell us that the program is bankrupting the country, paying out more than it takes in, will be made insolvent by retiring "baby boomers," and thus unavailable to for future generations.
The truth is that Social Security is completely solvent today, and will be into the future because it has a dedicated income stream that covers its costs and consistently generates a surplus, which today is $2.5 trillion. Estimates are that the Social Security surplus will grow to approximately $4.3 trillion in 2023, and that reserves will be sufficient to pay full benefits through the year 2037. After 2037, Social Security would still be able to pay for 78 percent of benefits even with no adjustments to revenues or benefits.
And those "baby boomers" who are going to bust Social Security when the retire? They have been paying into the system for more than 40 years, generating the large surplus the program has accumulated. Much of the money that baby boomers are and will be drawing on from Social Security, is, and will be, their own. That fact is conveniently forgotten by the critics.
Polls show that Social Security is popular with the public. This is not surprising given that it has lifted millions of American out of poverty and saved countless others from destitution born of disability. Moreover, nearly one in five recipients of Social Security benefits are children under the age of 18. Nevertheless, polls also show that the fear tactics are working, and that a majority of Americans do not expect to receive Social Security benefits when they retire.
Understanding that the public will not succumb to a frontal assault on Social Security, Tea Party supporters, Libertarians and other critics advance their radical agenda by creating a "mythology of fear" trotting out themes of a program that is "in crisis," "bankrupt," "broke," and, in the wake of the Madoff scandal, even a "Ponzi scheme." They then position themselves not as wanting to eliminate Social Security but as wanting to "save, "strengthen," and "protect" Social Security by privatizing it.
Social Security does not need to be saved. The fact is, Social Security has been the most successful government program of the past 75 years. Today, 53 million Americans receive Social Security benefits each month. No other program in American history -- has touched more lives and families and brought more financial stability to households -including those of is most ardent critics.
The Social Security Administration should do more to debunk the reprehensible fear campaign against the program. Public figures who support the program - including the president- should add their voices in support and work to calm the rhetoric.
Be careful what you believe just because it makes you fweel better .
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A bogus debt masquerading as an asset.
Not unlike you writing yourself a $2,000 IOU every month for money you have already spent. Keeping those IOU's in a specially locked file cabinet for years telling yourself and your bank they are assets to be redeemed at a later date.
Some people will believe anything and apparently you are one of them.
what a farce
"And god wept", I believe, is the next verse...
Here are links including Mr. Roosevelt's brilliant and powerful speech. Learn the facts. Learn the truth and spread it out there faster than the right and Obama's deficit commission can spread the lies as they try to get their greedy hands on Social Security.
SS has never and is not now and never will be any part of the deficit so it does NOT belong on the table for discussion.
http://semiwnal.firedoglake.com/diary/64561
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/08/06/HP/A/36710/James%20Roosevelt%20Remarks%20on%20the%20Social%20Security.aspx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/what-social-security-repo_b_672225.html
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/19/social_security_under_attack_cuts_proposed
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/7/19/part_ii_social_security_under_attack_cuts_proposed_higher_retirement_age_suggested
I read that they have tried to create a better system than Social Security and have not been able to do so. We were lucky we had your grandfather and his cabinet in office.
tragegy. We are made to believe that it is better to gamble with our retirement savings. Sure, let's
all "invest" everything we have at Las Vegas roulette tables and become rich!
(See
Are you better off playing the Stock Market or a Casino? )
Tom Kando
Most of us work for about 45 years before drawing Social Security. You have to work ten years to draw SS benefits, I think. We aren't allowed to retire until we are 62. The milititary and the police retire a lot earlier.
I believe the tax payers pay into the police retirement fund and the military pensions. We also pay for the government retirements. No one pays into our Social Security except ourselves and our employer.
Things change and I may have been told wrong but that is the way I understand it now about our retirements.
Especially the Obama administration. Instead we get a committee "hen house review" - run by the foxes.
Thanks a lot.
There is no way you should get less than we do and it should be figured like ours.
As a matter of sound business policy and to adapt to modern mortality reality, the SS retirement age should be raised to 70. There should also be a reasonable means test for benefits, one that scaled down the monthly payment for those with a retirement income of over $80K per year--scaled down, but not to the point of elimination.
The author brings up many unsubstantiated opinions. I will be the first to admit that I have been told that SS is a ' pay as you go' program and that there is not a SS trust fund, let alone a trust fund that today is $2.5 trillion.
I wait for some one to tell be which bank is holding that $2.5 trillion for us to use in the future. ... and please...do not tell me that story about the trust fund is backed by US government IOU's.
The reason you hear so much about Social Security being in trouble is that Congress (that includes both the Dems and the Reps) have regularly taken the surplus the the trust accumulates each year and earmarked it for other projects, in return issuing more treasury bonds to cover these "loans". One little problem.....these bonds have never been paid for. That is where the misguided idea of "IOU's" comes from.
Now, if the time comes that Social Security needs to liquidate some of these bonds to meet payout requirements, the US government must then borrow the money to satisfy the request, having already spent the funds in the past on unrelated projects (or maybe a pay raise or two for the members of Congress).
So, as stated in the article, there is nothing at all wrong with the trust fund.....just the people we have left in charge of the funds.
As you have so eloquently described, the ' SS trust fund' is nothing but a pile of IOU's.