God and your conscience
Early in his first term George W. Bush, in tune with his right-wing backers, tried to scare us into privatizing at least part of our Social Security trust fund. He claimed Social Security was “going flat busted” if we didn’t.
In addition to this grammatical crudity, George W. was “flat wrong.” If no changes are made the Social Security Trust Fund will exhaust its reserve assets by 2035, fourteen years down the road. It will then begin paying out more than it is taking in. But the system will not be zeroed out.
But to remain viable it will have to borrow, raise the minimum retirement age, increase the payroll deduction percentage, begin reducing benefits or some combination thereof. But that’s not as ominous as it might sound.
When Social Security was introduced in 1935 the average retirement age was around 65 and the average life expectancy wasn’t much beyond that. But although many of us are living well into our eighties today no adjustment to the retirement age requirements has ever been made to reflect this new reality. The SS Trust Fund had $2.9 trillion in reserves at the beginning of the 21st century but this will play out in two decades or maybe even sooner.
Could privatization of the fund be the answer? The right wing’s answer to every problem is to cut taxes, deregulate and privatize. But just think for a moment, what if even a portion of your Social Security money had been invested in the stock market during George W. Bush’s second term, our worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Again, the brutal truth is that without changes Social Security will run through its reserve assets by 2035. Sound a little scary? It needn’t be.
We must consider the fact that our average life expectancy has increased by close to twenty years since Social Security’s inception, yet no adjustments have been made in either the minimum retire
... When you step into that voting cubicle on November 3 only God and your conscience will know how you voted. Listen to God and your conscience.
ment age or the payroll tax percentage to accommodate these changes. Surprisingly, from an actuarial viewpoint Social Security has performed beyond our most ambitious expectations. But the bad news is that we have grown remiss in our responsibilities as overseers of the nation’s checkbook. But we don’t have to make any radical changes and we don’t have to make them all at once either.
The raising of the retirement age can be easily accomplished over an extended period and so can the payroll tax percentage increases. Thus, we can avoid any radical changes that could have a deleterious effect on our nation’s economy.
We should also remember that the increases in the Social Security Trust Fund’s contributions will not weaken the general economy. This money will be recycled by consumer spending on housing, food, transportation, and living normal expenses. This, of course, will have a regenerative economic effect.
I find in talking to friends about their voting intentions on November 3 that many of them are still heavily influenced by their spouses, friends and preachers. But I would remind you that when you step into that voting cubicle on November 3 only God and your conscience will know how you voted. Listen to God and your conscience.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@ bellsouth.net.