March 16, 2011
NPR ran a piece that largely accepted untrue or misleading Republican assertions about Social Security. The piece told readers that:
“Republicans also believe [emphasis added] the very best time to fix Social Security is now, during a time of divided government when both Democrats and Republicans can share ownership of any changes.”
Actually, NPR’s reporters/editors have no clue what Republicans “believe.” They are just making this up. The Republicans in question (like Democrats) are politicians. They say things that advance their political agenda whether or not they actually believe them. Competent reporters know this and don’t try to tell their audience that these politicians actually believe their assertions; competent reporters just report the assertions and let their audience make up their own mind as to whether the politicians believe what they are saying.
It is also not a fact that Social Security needs to be fixed in any meaningful sense of the term. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the program can pay all benefits for the next 28 years with no changes whatsoever and can pay nearly 80 percent of projected benefits indefinitely into the future, even if nothing is ever done to change the program.
The article includes a statement from Alabama Senator Richard Shelby noting that Social Security paid out more in benefits than it took in taxes last year: “
“Social Security is now at the tipping point, the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency if we don’t do something about it.”
It would have been worth noting that this actually was part of the design of the program. The reason that payroll taxes were raised to a point where they exceeded benefits was to cover the cost of the baby boomers’ retirement, which meant that there would be points like the present where benefits exceeded taxes. Otherwise, the increase in the payroll taxes in the 1980s made no sense. It would have been appropriate to point out to listeners that Mr. Shelby either does not understand the program or is deliberately trying to mislead the public.
Similarly, the segment included an assertion from Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn that money was stolen from Social Security:
“The fact is … $2.8 trillion was stolen from Social Security .., The money was spent. It’s broke. And we’re going to have to fund $2.8 trillion over the next 20 years just to make the payments that we’ve got. I would think most people would think we ought to fix that.”
Actually, not a penny was stolen from Social Security. Social Security lent money to the federal government by buying bonds, just as individuals, private corporations and banks do all the time. When an individual or company buys a bond from the government, it doesn’t matter to them at all (except as citizens) whether or how the government spends the money. The government owes the exact same money regardless.
When the government pays back the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund it will effectively be replacing the bonds held by the trust fund with other bonds. The borrowing took place when the government sold bonds to the Social Security trust fund in the first place. It is not new borrowing when the government repays the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund.
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