Comments for CNN Forget to Look at Its Chart When Warning of the "Burgeoning Cost" of Social Security at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.cepr.net Mon, 20 May 2013 12:58:30 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cnn-forget-to-look-at-its-chart-when-warning-of-the-qburgeoning-costq-of-social-security#comment-16128 Bruce is correct. CBO Option 2 is to raise the payroll tax one tenth of one percent per year over the next twenty years. This would make Social Security "solvent" for the next seventy five years. Between now and then... especially after having seen that one tenth of one percent per year doesn't hurt... people could agree to "do it again" and make Social Security "solvent" forever. I prefer this to Option 4, which would require raising the tax on the rich. That may sound like a good idea, but it's a bad idea for Social Security, which has always been paid for by the people who get the benefits. And this protects them from the politics of welfare. It is also not a good idea to depend on the kindness of the rich when you can avoid it... for what amounts to saving an extra forty cents per week each year so that your own savings will pay for your own retirement. - coberly Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:20:18 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cnn-forget-to-look-at-its-chart-when-warning-of-the-qburgeoning-costq-of-social-security#comment-16121 "I can't imagine the Social Security Trustees would have so narrowly limited their options last year. I'd love to see the citation." The Trustees quite deliberately defer policy to Congress. Their "options" are not realistic proposals and previous fixes have never come in such stark form, instead they are just arithmetic expressions of the problem in its simplest forms of "fix it tomorrow" vs "don't fix it at all". Historically something closer to CBO option 2 has been adopted. - Bruce Webb Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:58:17 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cnn-forget-to-look-at-its-chart-when-warning-of-the-qburgeoning-costq-of-social-security#comment-16119 "The oldest available Social Security Trustees report, from 1997," This link has all Reports back to 1941. http://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/trust/trustreports.html In fact the very first Report, that of 1941 is worth reading. In doing so a lot of myths about how Social Security "changed" or "was changed" to betray its original goal are dispelled. The Social Security Insurance program outlined in the 1941 Report is in all important respects identical to the one today, with the exception of the Disability component added in 1956. - Bruce Webb Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:52:10 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cnn-forget-to-look-at-its-chart-when-warning-of-the-qburgeoning-costq-of-social-security#comment-16106    The article also says: "In order for Social Security to remain fully solvent over the next 75 years, policymakers in theory could do one of three things, the trustees said last year: Immediately jack up the payroll tax to 14.55%. Workers and their employers currently pay 12.4% (6.2% each) on the first $110,100 in wages. Cut benefits by 13.8% Or some combination of the two."     The CBO looked at policy options last year but studied 30 options in 5 general categories.    My favorite, option #4, is to eliminate the taxable maximum which would extend the trust fund to 2083. http://www.cbo.gov/publication/21547 I can't imagine the Social Security Trustees would have so narrowly limited their options last year. I'd love to see the citation. - Robert Salzberg Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:57:29 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/cnn-forget-to-look-at-its-chart-when-warning-of-the-qburgeoning-costq-of-social-security#comment-16105 The oldest available Social Security Trustees report, from 1997, states that the SS Trust Fund was anticipated to run out in 2031. The current report brings it back to 2033 from 2036. By my count, the program is still better off than was predicted 15 years ago. I fail to see how that is a crisis. - Pete Peterson Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:43:59 +0100