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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
WaPo's Samuelson Needlessly Freaks Out About Social Security
Robert Samuelson bashes his generation in today’s Washington Post:
Shame on us [baby boomers]. We are trying to rob our children and grandchildren, putting the country's future at risk in the process. On one of the great issues of our time, the social and economic costs of our retirement, we have adopted a policy of selfish silence.
*Sigh* What is Samuelson so exercised about? He’s huffing and puffing over something that may or may not happen 33 years from now.
Here’s the thing about Social Security: There’s nothing wrong with Social Security; it does not need to be fixed. The 2006 Social Security Trustees report indicates that in 2040, Social Security benefit payouts may have to be reduced by 26%. That’s it. That’s the "great issue of our time."
Here’s the text from the report:
Despite these cash-flow deficits, beginning in 2017, redemption of trust fund assets will allow continuation of full benefit payments on a timely basis until 2040, when the trust funds will become exhausted. This redemption process will require a flow of cash from the General Fund of the Treasury. Pressures on the Federal Budget will thus emerge well before 2040. Even if a trust fund’s assets are exhausted, however, tax income will continue to flow into the fund. Present tax rates would be sufficient to pay 74 percent of scheduled benefits after trust fund exhaustion in 2040 and 70 percent of scheduled benefits in 2080.
Samuelson also engages in the classic scare tactics of Social Security haters - lumping Medicare in with Social Security to create the illusion that there’s one really big program that costs unimaginable sums, hand-waving about soul-crushing tax increases, and citing population and budget figures without context or caveat.
Shame on Samuelson for using precious column inches to raise holy hell about such a non-problem when he could be addressing real issues.
Posted by Craig Jennings
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