August 22, 2011
Showing once again why it is known as “Fox on 15th Street,” the Washington Post headlined an article “Social Security crisis is worsening.” The subhead told readers, “rise in disability applications driving it to the verge of insolvency.”
Those who read the article carefully will discover that the “it” being driven to insolvency is the Social Security disability program, which is a bit more than one-tenth of the combined retirement, survivors and disability program that people usually think of as “Social Security.” The latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office show that the combined program will be fully solvent until 2038.
Even after this date, the program will still be able to pay 81 percent of scheduled benefits. Alternatively, if taxes were raised enough to make the program fully solvent, the necessary tax increase is equal to about 5 percent of projected wage growth over the next three decades. The Post doesn’t like to make these points because it doesn’t advance its agenda for cutting Social Security.
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