June 09, 2010
That is what the Washington Post argued in an article on President Obama’s deficit commission today. The article told readers that: “Adjusting Social Security benefits is a likely point of consensus, commission members say.” [The word “adjusting” is presumably a typo. The only way to reduce the deficit is by cutting benefits.]
The Social Security trust fund holds more than $2.6 trillion in government bonds. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this money will be sufficient, along with current tax revenue, to pay all scheduled benefits through the year 2044. The decision to cut benefits would effectively mean defaulting on these bonds — denying workers the benefits that they have already paid for through the designated Social Security tax.
The article misrepresents the finances of the program by telling readers that: “Social Security has been self-supporting since 1935, with taxes paid by current workers financing benefits for current retirees.” This has not been true since the Greenspan Commission’s recommendations were implemented in 1983. The commission’s plan raised taxes and the normal retirement age, thereby reducing benefits. This led to a substantial degree of pre-funding, allowing the trust fund to accumulate more than $2.6 trillion in government bonds over the last quarter century.
As a result of this prefunding, the article’s comment later in the paragraph: “Sometime in the next few years, taxes will no longer cover benefits,” has no relevance to anything. Under the law, Social Security benefits are paid out of the trust fund, it makes not an iota of difference whether annual Social Security tax revenue is greater or less than annual benefit payments. This is an invention of the Washington Post and critics of Social Security.
The next paragraph tells readers:
“The program’s defenders argue that there is no crisis: If Treasury would repay billions of dollars in surplus Social Security taxes borrowed over the years, the program could pay full benefits through 2037. But many budget experts question whether supporting the existing benefit structure should be a cash-strapped nation’s first priority.”
It is worth noting that the decision not to “repay billions of dollars in surplus Social Security taxes,” is effectively a decision to default on the portion of the government debt held by the Social Security trust fund. It is worth highlighting this point so that readers understand the position being advocated by “many budget experts.”
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