Marc Goldwein: The best way toward a Social Security fix? This one is tried and true.

A Washington Post op-ed by Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget makes the case for assigning a bipartisan commission or advisory board the task of developing Social Security solvency legislation for Congress to consider. Keying off his testimony at a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Goldwein explains that commissions, committees, or advisory councils have shaped all the largest Social Security laws, going back to the program's founding, and may be necessary to avoid a 22% abrupt benefit cut in just six years.

This op-ed is excerpted below; to view the full piece, please visit The Washington Post's website.

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These types of special processes are exactly what it will take to get the ball rolling on urgently needed reforms. They will create an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to come together on a plan to save Social Security before it is too late.

Special interests on the left and right, unfortunately, have attacked these kinds of solutions for fear they will upset the status quo. Groups such as Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and AARP agree on very little, except for their unwillingness to accept a realistic compromise that could actually save Social Security. AARP opposes any changes to slow the growth in benefits, even for the richest seniors, while ATR is against any increase in taxes, even to permanently restore Social Security stability.

Their arguments, however, don’t hold water.

These critics claim that the commission-driven approach violates the normal legislative process. On the contrary, when it comes to Social Security, outside commissions, committees and advisory councils are the regular process.

All the most significant Social Security laws throughout the program’s 91-year history were developed with the help of outside entities. The original Social Security Act establishing the program came out of then-Labor Secretary Frances Perkins’s Committee on Economic Security. Major legislation in 1939, 1950, 1956, 1972 and 1977 came from Social Security Advisory Councils — the predecessors to today’s Social Security Advisory Board. And the landmark 1983 reforms that bought us 50 years of solvency were negotiated in part through the bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform, known as the Greenspan Commission after its chairman, economist Alan Greenspan.

Read the entire piece here.

Published works by members or staff of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget do not necessarily reflect the views of all members or staff of the Committee.