Public Agenda Issue Guide: Social Security

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OVERVIEW

Social Security

Social Security, the nation's retirement system, is one of the most popular government programs in U.S. history, ensuring Americans' stable retirement for 75 years. But now that the first of the 76 million baby boomers have started retiring -- and are projected to live longer than any previous generation of Americans -- the question is how the program can be sustained.

An estimated 10,000 people a day will become eligible for Social Security benefits over the next two decades, putting an unprecedented strain on the system. In less than a decade, in 2017, Social Security is scheduled to start paying out more in benefits than it collects each year in payroll taxes. If nothing is done, the Social Security trust fund is projected to run dry in 2037 Sometimes people say the system will be bankrupt at that point, but that isn't really true. Social Security would still receive tax revenues and still function – but it could pay only about three-quarters of promised benefits to retirees.

Nearly everyone believes Social Security is important, but no consensus has emerged, either in Washington or among the public at large, on what approach the government should take to keep it financially stable.
At the same time, Americans as a nation only save a miniscule percentage of their income, and individual investment plans (like the widely used 401K) have been battered by the global financial crisis and recession. That may leave Americans' own resources dwindling even as the government safety net begins to fray.

GET THE FACTS

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CONSIDER THE CHOICES

Keep Social Security intact

Redefine the contract to make Social Security sustainable

Put Social Security taxes in private sector investments

Make economic security in retirement a personal responsibility

To ensure that Americans are able to retire with security and dignity, government must keep Social Security intact. Even if it requires raising taxes or reducing spending on other government programs, the promise of income security in retirement years must be honored. It is immoral and unthinkable to arbitrarily reduce benefits to older Americans because of the pressures created by a large number of individuals in the baby boom generation. In any case, maintaining this program over the long run requires only modest adjustments of revenues and expenses.
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Flaws in Social Security can't be fixed with a little tinkering. To avoid stark choices early in the next century including sharp hikes in taxes and reductions in other government programs significant changes must be enacted to meet the needs of future retirees. The demographics of the baby boom generation and the smaller generation that follows it require pared down benefits and revised eligibility rules. Commitments to older Americans must not jeopardize other public needs. We will have to trim benefits, especially to those who need them least, and reverse the trend to early retirement.
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Social Security benefits shouldn't be drastically altered, and retirement income shouldn't be made a personal responsibility. We should focus on finding a way to pay the benefits to which recipients are entitled. The key to making this program financially secure is to get higher returns on the taxes paid into Social Security. Rather than investing taxes in low-yield government bonds, the federal government should invest Social Security taxes in the private marketplace to increase the yield.
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Social Security is fundamentally flawed. Modest reforms won't be sufficient to provide financial security for future generations of retirees. The Social Security Trust Fund should be replaced by mandatory personal savings accounts, which make individuals responsible for their own financial security in retirement. Mandatory personal savings accounts would either wholly or partly replace the current system, putting responsibility for retirement security where it should be, on each of us individually.
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