In 1945 there were 41.9 workers paying Social Security payroll taxes for every recipient of Social Security payments.  In recent times, the talk was that Social Security would get  down to less than three workers paying in for every recipient.  Well, we're finally down to 1.75 workers paying in for each recipient.  It's just not going to keep going much longer in its current  form.

When FDR and the progressives started the Social Security Program, the average life expectancy for males was
64 years of age.  The average life expectancy for females was 66 years of age.  The retirement age was 65.  People were never expected to collect Social Security benefits unless the recipient was a very elderly widow who had
outlived her life expectancy.  Social Security wasn't even sold to the American public at that time as a "retirement program".  It was sold as an "insurance program".  It was intended, or at least it was presented that way, as insurance against worker disability or indigency of the extremely elderly who had little means of support.

As so often happens, the original concepts have been lost, and Social Security morphed into an entitlement where people expected to get "their" money back, guaranteed, "with interest".  It was a progressive lie, and the days of
reckoning are finally here.

How we handle Social Security reform (and reform of the other equally unsustainable entitlements) will determine the future of the country.  Will we do it in a way that is "fair" to seniors and allows the greatest freedom of choice to the
younger generation?  Or will we cling to a Bigger and Bigger Government wealth redistribution plan which will lead this country inexorably to totalitarianism?


Bill Cochrane

Everyone knows by now that there is no "Lock Box" for Social Security.  There never was.  There is no personal account.  There are no investments.  The Federal Government has put the Social Security Payroll Tax revenues into the General Revenue fund, and issued "IOUs" to the Social Security Administration.  The Social Security payments to retired and disabled recipients are made from the General Renues fund as those obligations become due.  Therefore, Social Security payments are just like any other payment or obligation of the Treasury.  They must be covered by current tax revenues and National Debt instruments.

Last week’s presidential debate at the Reagan Library elevated Social Security as a national issue that could   reshape the 2012 campaign.  Candidates spent the week trading blows about the role of the 76-year-old social insurance program.

Leaving aside the political rhetoric, one thing is certain:  Social Security needs to be reformed or America will face a dismal future. As one of the three major entitlement programs — along with Medicare and Medicaid — Social Security is contributing to a very dire long-term budget outlook.  Spending on the three entitlement programs could consume one-half of the economy by 2056.

America's seniors should know also by now that they are not going to be affected by any rational reform proposal.  After years of paying their Social Security and Medicare taxes, those who are currently receiving benefits and those who are close to receiving benefits will ge "grandfathered" into the programs.  However, if something is not done to reform the programs for those young folks just starting  out who have time to make proper plans and adjustments, then the programs will crash and no one will have Social Security.  And the crash may just take the whole shebang down with it....

I think America's seniors are ready to support rational reforms.

Bill Cochrane