It's time for me to get out the shovel and hose, slog through the muck once again, and clean things off so my readers will get a nice clear picture of what's really going on with the future of Social Security.
Just last week, the Social Security Board of Trustees released their annual report on the financial status of our nation's primary retirement safety net -- the Social Security program.
And immediately, the pundits and spin doctors on both sides of the political spectrum began to twist the facts to reinforce their agendas. In a nutshell, many Republicans said the report confirms that Social Security -- and the economy as a whole, for that matter -- is going you know where in a handbasket, and that if we don't take drastic action soon, grandma will be forced into eating birdseed before she knows what hit her.
On the other hand, many Democrats said the report confirms that we should remain calm and that we have time to make prudent decisions about the future of the world's largest social insurance program.
The Trustees report also painted an even bleaker picture of the Medicare trust fund. But this column is called "Your Social Security," so I'm sticking with just the portion of the report, and the reaction to it, that dealt with the retirement program.
So, who's telling the truth -- the pessimistic Republicans or the optimistic Democrats? As is so often the case, the facts lie somewhere in between.
Let's look at the report. As even a high school sophomore taking his or her first economics class could have predicted, the news wasn't good. Under the crushing burden of the worst recession in a half-century, the Social Security system is projected to run into a financing shortfall years earlier than had been predicted in past reports.
The Social Security program, which for decades has taken in far more in taxes than it has been required to pay in benefits, will reverse the flow through its financing pipeline in just seven years. The trustees say that by 2016, Social Security will be paying out more in benefits than it receives in tax revenues.
And that's the part of the report the Republicans jump on. "Oh my gosh," I can hear them crying, "in the same year that Rush Limbaugh finally reaches his 65th birthday, the Social Security system will go belly-up and he won't get what's coming to him!"
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