Cross-posted at
From the Roots.
We all know the facts. Social Security is in danger, right? By 2020, the Social Security "slush fund" will be empty, right? If we don't do something about it right now, the whole system is going to collapse, right?
Wrong.
Social Security is not in peril. Sit down. You've been fooled by folks like Grover Norquist and his merry band of arsonists, who want to burn down the institutions of government that keep you safe, healthy and secure and leave you powerless to protect yourself from the powerful.
The GOP has been beating on the "Social Security in peril" drum for a long time. They want to scare you into supporting Social Security privatization. They will tell you that privatization is the only way to protect your Social Security savings. What they won't tell you is that privatization is intended to vastly enrich the investor class, while leaving working Americans very little "security" at all.
Sure, we are expecting broad demographic changes in the U.S. population in upcoming decades. Undeniably, our population is getting older. Undeniably, an older population is a greater burden on government.
But let's listen to cooler heads for a minute. Demographic changes don't mean that we should rip apart Social Security and abandon one of the key economic support structures for elderly people in this country. The demographic changes that we are expecting can be managed effectively by small measures.
In a recent Paul Krugman column, he cited data that suggests that the needs of our growing elderly population can be met by raising the average payroll contribution by four percent, while decreasing the average benefit by a similar amount.
There are, doubtlessly, countless other prudent, sane and pragmatic answers to the problem of Social Security funding that do not require tearing the whole system apart and handing even more wealth to our country's most powerful class.
Recently, Fed. Chairman Greespan told us that we would have to cut Social Security in order to pay for George Bush's tax cuts. This is one of the most base and deplorable suggestions made in American politics since the earlier decades of the twentieth century.
One of the hallmarks of a modern, civilized society is that it protects its young, its disabled, its veterans and its elderly. The GOP is telling us that our society will no longer do these things. The time is at hand to rebuke this ignoble and immoral assertion. Our great American society must continue to fulfill its duty to these citizens.
Let's see Senatorial Dems lead the way in prudent, pragmatic guardianship of the Social Security program.