Maya MacGuineas: Myths and Fearmongering are Driving Social Security to Insolvency

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News, an excerpt of which is below.

In less than seven years, Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to go insolvent. The result is unthinkable: a legally required across-the-board 24% benefit cut for both current and new beneficiaries. Yet despite knowing this, lawmakers have done nothing. In fact they’ve done worse than nothing; they’ve passed legislation accelerating the program’s insolvency.

Why? Because they know it is the third rail of American politics. Simply talking about responsible ways to fix the program could lead to attacks by political opponents and demonization by outside groups, threatening their political survival.

Many factors have created this situation. For starters, Social Security is a political hot potato due its high popularity among federal programs and the fact that seniors — who make up most of the program’s beneficiaries — vote at disproportionately high rates.

In our win-at-all-costs politics, both parties often choose to use Social Security as a hammer against their opponents rather than champion those who seek to offer or even discuss solutions.

Read the entire piece here.

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