Social Security withers while leaders dither
Brookings offers solutions while president and Congress ignore looming benefit cut
ANOTHER VIEW| ORLANDO SENTINEL
Americans who might agree on little else share a common interest in preserving Social Security and Medicare.
Nearly all of us are either enrolled in those universal programs or expect to be as we get older.
So it should alarm Republicans, Democrats and independents that Congress is doing nothing to prevent the enormous benefit reductions threatening both programs in just seven years. That is when the trust funds are on track to exhaust their reserves and reduce payouts to no more than what existing earmarked taxes will collect.
Across the board, everyone receiving old age or survivor assistance from Social Security would get 23% less.
For every 4 of 10 retired Americans, Social Security provides at least half of their income. For 1 of every 7, it is more than 90%. Social Security keeps 20 million older people and a million children out of poverty.
Medicare would have to reduce spending by 11%, most of which would diminish care. A reasonable tax increase would avert that.
The longer Congress puts off reckoning with these problems, the more difficult the solutions will be.
President Donald Trump has provided no leadership on either issue.
He wanted to make matters worse by exempting all Social Security benefits from income tax. That is — surprise! — skewed to the wealthy, because benefits are already totally exempt for retired couples whose income is less than $32,000 and half is tax-free for joint incomes under $44,000.
Trump falsely claims that he already exempted Social Security from the tax. He's referring to the temporary $6,000 increase in the standard deduction for couples, which is meaningless to those who owe no income tax. That expires in 2028.
Trump wants to dump Medicare, Medicaid and childcare on states.
The Brookings Institution proposed making Social Security fully solvent for another 75 years.
The plan would raise the ceiling (now $184,500) on income subject to the Social Security tax and increase the tax rate from 12.4%, paid jointly by workers and employers, to 12.6%. It would raise the retirement age, in stages, from 67 to 70 for people in the highest two-fifths of income brackets. It would earmark to the trust fund all taxes paid on Social Security benefits.
It would fully tax Social Security benefits paid to individuals with adjusted gross incomes of $100,000 or $125,000 for couples.
The Brookings program asks for something from everyone, but not too much from anyone.
The most controversial part would increase legal immigration, with more temporary employment visas and higher quotas, and status adjustment "for certain undocumented immigrants."
The urgent need for this is the falling birthrate and the declining ratio of taxpaying workers to retired beneficiaries.
Social Security is one of the most important issues that voters should demand every candidate address in this election year.
