In between the Benghazi attacks/ hearings and the Clinton Foundation throwing in a little email controversy, you will see and hear “tired old ideas”, “yesterday’s news”. A not so subtle way to point to Hillary’s age.
Rather than talk about Nation Inquirer gotcha stories or naming calling, let’s talk about one of those “tired old ideas” – Social Security.
Social Security is a wildly successful program. I wrote this piece ten years ago, but it is still relevant today.
Social Security program is one of the twentieth century's finest achievements, a common sense retirement solution that rightfully enjoys broad support among Americans of all ages. Social Security benefits are earned benefits, not welfare, and they provide elderly Americans with an all-important safety net. Thanks to Social Security, the poverty rate among elderly Americans has dropped by nearly two-thirds in the past four decades, from thirty percent plus to ten percent plus. These benefits, in combination with Medicare health insurance, have dramatically reduced poverty for the aged in America. In 1959, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that more than 35 percent of elderly Americans were poor. During the 1960s, elderly Americans experienced twice the poverty rate of all other Americans. By 1996, in large part because of changes in the Social Security and Medicare systems, the poverty rate among senior citizens was 10.8 percent. This is slightly lower than the rate for other adults (13.7%… children have a 18 or 19% rate).
Social Security provided 66 percent of the elderly in America with benefits that represented at least half their total income. Without Social Security, approximately half the elderly in America would have fallen below the poverty line in 1994. A significant portion of the elderly need Social Security to survive: in 1994, 30 percent of elderly recipients relied on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their total income; for 16 percent of recipients, Social Security was their only source of income.
Administrative costs for Social Security are about 1 percent of benefits. According to the American Council of Life Insurance, administrative costs for private insurance are between 12 and 14 percent of annual benefit amounts.
There is a problem.
Social Security may only be able to pay 100% benefits through 2033. Thereafter benefits will be cut to 77%.
Admittedly, most Democrats are hesitant to recommend changes involving increasing age or decreasing benefits. Some suggest Hillary should opt for tax increases on wealthier tax payers.
Republicans have the tired old ideas such as:
• Raising full retirement age to anywhere from 68 to 70.
• Means testing Social Security.
• Privatizing Social Security.
What is new or innovative about any of their ideas? It’s the same old Republican ideas against a successful program they have never liked.
Just because a program is 79 years old, doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean it is obsolete. We need to keep the focus in the next 18 + months on the real differences between Democrats and Republicans not the personal attacks.