Those tired of the Fed Government in their lives may get their wish, if Republicans get control in November.
Social Security, the holy grail of entitlement safety nets, may become tattered if so called "fiscal conservatives" are able to demonstrate to working Americans the true mission of the GOP. Returning as few tax dollars as possible has been the history of the Republican Party. One needs only look to the diminution of middle class wealth that occurred in the past ten years. While Wall Street and large corporation were recovering from the financial meltdown that culminated with the stock market collapse in 2008, American homeowners were losing 13 trillion dollars of equity in their homes.
Today, with homeowners unable to tap into their greatest investment, removing social security, particularly for seniors, will throw some citizens into poverty and despair.
Contrary to sound bites, Social Security is not broken. What is true, based on current projections by the Congressional Budget Office, outlays will equal revenues by 2015. After that, every decade will see a one percent increase cost to GDP. The present cost to GDP is about five percent.
Telling Americans the promise made by our government will no longer be honored is cruel and unnecessary. Workers who pay into FICA should not be told "no."
A typical GOP solution was given in June by House Minority John Boehner (R-OH) when he said the retirement age should be raised to 70. "We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke. If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke? We just need to be honest with people."
Two weeks ago on "Meet the Press," Mr. Boehner said, "I think it's time for the American people to have an adult conversation about the problems that we face," he said. "But we also know that these programs are, are unsustainable in their current form. ... I think we need to bring Democrats and Republicans together in order to solve this problem."
Perhaps Mr. Boehner and his Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, will try to resurrect George W. Bush's plan to give workers under 55 to the option to invest one-third of their Social Security taxes in private accounts maintained by the government. Convincing Americans to place their social security taxes on Wall Street may be a hard sell. Most people need only look at their 401ks and other retirement programs containing stocks to doubt the wisdom of that suggestion.
Changes to our Social Security system will be needed to sustain it for the next generation. Health care reform passed this year addresses one of the biggest challenges to the system - raising costs of Medicare.
Instead of reducing or eliminating Social Security, concentrating on full employment for this and the next generation with cost reductions makes more sense.
August 14, 2010 was the seventy-fifth anniversary of Social Security. The promise made then is not one that should be thrown away by fiscal conservatives wanting to shirk their responsibility to provide for workers in retirement.
Question: Although Republicans would be insane to say anything about changing Social Security until after midterm elections, do you think if they regain majorities they will take an axe to the promise kept since 1935? Please add comments below.