Social Security is not the problem
This is one of these facts that you may have heard before but it bears repeating:
When people say, 鈥渢he entitlements will bankrupt America,鈥� they鈥檙e a) wrong, and b) not talking about Social Security, or at least the shouldn鈥檛 be.
The figure below, from CBO, show that as a share of GDP, neither Social Security nor other spending (which includes the discretionary spending that everyone鈥檚 all gung ho to slash away at) are driving government spending as a share of the economy. It鈥檚 health care. And as I鈥檝e stressed every time this comes up, that鈥檚 not a 驳辞惫鈥檛 problem鈥攖hat鈥檚 just a problem. In fact, health costs grow faster in the private than in the public sector.
Which is why I said 鈥渁鈥� above is also wrong. It鈥檚 not entitlements, it鈥檚 Medicare, Mcaid, etc. And it鈥檚 not even those that will 鈥渂ankrupt America.鈥� It鈥檚 health care spending system wide that must be brought under control.
Social Security has a funding shortfall too鈥攁bout 0.8% of GDP over the 75-year horizon. That鈥檚 just about equal to the revenue from the expiration of the high-end Bush tax cuts, and less than half from all the Bush cuts. So please don鈥檛 tell me we can鈥檛 afford this guaranteed pension that provides more than half of their income to more than half of the elderly.
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