Burnt Orange Report

Lies, lies and damned lies

By Nathan Nance

Guest post by Nate Nance

I just found out about Andy Card and Sec John Snow being on Fox News Sunday. And I just found out what they were saying:

"Under no one's plan will younger workers receive benefits they've been promised because the Social Security system doesn't have the financial underpinning, the foundation to support the expectations of social security 75 years from now, 50 years from now."

I'm not an advocate of doing nothing, but Social Security is not in an danger of collapsing anytime in the next hundred years. The idea that Social Security won't be there for us younger folk when we're ready to retire is a carefully cultivated image from pro-privatization groups that is decades long. Under the Social Security Act, everyone is guaranteed to receive benefits. It is an entitlement you receive as an American citizen. It doesn't matter if the federal government is running a surplus or a deficit, you will get your check because it is the law. Under private accounts, if you lose your money, then you just don't get anything to retire on.

I can't stress enough that Social Security is more or less solvent indefinitely. There is a shortfall looming that can be made up with some shared sacrifice of a few dollars more per person in payroll taxes and some cuts in benefits or means testing later. We can also cover it with raising the cap from $87,900 to $200,000, or more money from rich people. But that's my solution to everything.

Hat tip to Josh Marshall for bringing it to my attention since I don't watch Fox News.

This is a guest post from Nathan Nance. Nate is a sports/news clerk for the Waco Tribune-Herald and writer/editor of Common Sense a Texas-based Democratic Web log. He can be reached at nate_nance@yahoo.com