Bolling: The Social Security Mess

It is estimated that 63 million Americans are currently receiving Social Security benefits. They rely on these monthly payments to support their retirement income, in whole or in part.

Unfortunately, the Social Security Trust Fund is in danger of being depleted by the year 2033 unless Congress acts to shore up the fund. There are only a few solutions to this problem, including:

1. Increase the social security tax rate on employees and employers from the current rate of 6.2%.
2. Remove or increase the cap on taxable social security earnings from its current level of $160,200/year.
3. Defer the full retirement age for future socal security beneficiaries. It is currently 67 years of age for most younger workers.
4. Reduce social security benefits. (This won’t happen because it would not be politically sustainable.)

I know that some people would still like to see social security privatized for younger workers, but that won’t happen either because it is not politically sustainable.

So, the realistic solutions to this problem are options 1-3, or some combination of these, like it or not.

The need for action is real. The solutions are readily identifiable. But unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that those who lead us are willing or capable of putting together the consensus that would be necessary to accomplish the goal of preserving social security for future generations.

Solving this problem will require focused, bipartisan leadership that is not concerned about political fallout. Unfortuantely, there are not a lot of these types of “profiles in courage” in Washington these days.