The biggest welfare state program is not a giveaway. Almost no one thinks of it as “state aid” or “political charity.” Most Americans think of it as their money.
The program is Social Security, and it is in trouble.
But since contributors to the program (just about every adult American) think of the benefits the program provides as theirs, when politicians talk about reform there emerges a certain amount of . . . negative political feedback.
Uproar, sometimes.
This may seem a pity. We may want to have what we idealistically refer to as “polite rational discussion,” but people don’t like to be stolen from. When people suspect their retirements are being bilked from them — by their elected officials, no less — they have every right to get upset. That’s not merely understandable, it’s to be expected. Maybe even admired.
But anger is no excuse for misinformation.
Unfortunately, Americans have never been given a full, honest overview of the Social Security program. Well, not by politicians, anyway.
Until a few years ago, politicians treated Social Security as “the third rail” of politics, the issue that, to touch, would kill one’ career.
But politicians are an interesting group of frauds, by nature, and “touch” Social Security they did. At no point in the program’s grand history were the funds the system collected invested like a real retirement program’s funds would be, in the market. No. From the very beginning its surpluses (and, early on, there were huge surpluses) were used by Congress to fund wars and giveaways and whatnot. And, as time went by, the original benefit package ballooned with additional items that politicians promised voters.
Indeed, our representatives and executives and bureaucrats worked together, mightily, to use Social Security as a vast pork project, a way to buy off our votes with our money.
Great system. For politicians.
In the ’80s, the thing was going broke, so President Ronald Reagan set up a special commission to suggest fixes for the system. The main thing the commission proposed was much, much higher FICA withholding. That is, higher “contributions.” (That last word is the program’s euphemism for “taxes.”)