USD College Republicans

Paulson: Social Security unsustainable, needs urgent reform

Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, says that the Social Security program is unsustainable .

Of course, the Democratic Party (and some Republicans) will just stick their heads in the sand and ignore the problem.

Here is the whole article:
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US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday that America's Social Security program for the retired is "financially unsustainable" and needs an urgent overhaul.
Paulson, speaking after a government panel had completed its annual assessment of the Social Security and Medicare benefits programs, said waves of retiring Americans threaten to soon deplete available funds stockpiled in the two programs.

"As the baby boom generation moves into retirement, these programs face progressively larger financial challenges," Paulson said.

The Treasury secretary said a growing number of retirees and the programs' rising costs could harm America's future prosperity if Social Security and Medicare are not overhauled and bolstered.

The needs of the Social Security program, which provides retirement benefits to all Americans as long as they have contributed to the program, are less acute, however, than Medicare.

Paulson said the Social Security program's cash flows are projected to turn negative in under 10 years and that a Social Security trust fund would likely be exhausted in 2041 without urgent reform.

Social Security's unfunded obligation, the difference between the present values of Social Security inflows and outflows less the existing trust funds, equals 4.3 trillion dollars over the next 75 years and 13.6 trillion on a permanent basis, according to the Treasury.

Medicare, which pays medical bills for retired Americans, is facing bigger financial challenges because of soaring health care and drug costs.

Medicare's annual costs were 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007, or nearly three-quarters of Social Security's, but are projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2028 and soar to nearly 11 percent of GDP in 2082, compared to 5.8 percent for Social Security, according to figures provided by the Treasury.

Paulson said the annual review of the two benefits programs would be sent to Congress and he urged US lawmakers to address the plans growing demands.

"Our nation needs a bipartisan effort to strengthen both programs for future retirees," Paulson said.

US President George W. Bush has called for bipartisan action that would make the Social Security program permanently sustainable.
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PLEASE, Democratic Party, let us have control of our own money. QUIT trying to save us from ourselves! Can't you see it's FAILING MISERABLY???

Also, check out an organization called Students for Saving Social Security
. They're great, fun people, and are working hard to get the government to fix the Social Security problem. Support them!

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 03:16PM Mar 25, 2008 by College Republicans in Social Security  |  Comments[0]

Mankiw: Fix Social Security

Greg Mankiw had a great op-ed in yesterday's New York Times.

It is rare that politicians approach that increasingly dreary issue of Social Security. They leave it to the economists. This article as an eloquent plea to politicians to actually DO something about the bloated, broke bureaucracy that IS the Social Security program:

"THE big question for the green-eyeshade crowd is how to pay for these blessings. It is an issue that no presidential candidate has taken up in earnest.

Republican candidates are fond of saying we should cut tax rates because doing so would incentivize more rapid economic growth (true) and raise tax revenue (wishful thinking). But unless we figure out a politically acceptable way to reduce the benefits now promised to future retirees, taxes are going up in the coming decades. The national debate will have to shift from which tax cuts do the most good to which tax increases do the least harm.

Democratic candidates like to talk about expanding the social safety net with universal health insurance. But they blithely ignore the fact that the safety net we already have was bought on credit and that the bill is almost due.

The Democrats claim fiscal responsibility by advocating taxes on the rich, but the numbers don’t back up the rhetoric."

While maintaining an even hand when discussing candidates' policies, Mankiw still finds time to take a well-deserved pot-shot at Hillary:

"The campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, wants to raise income taxes for those making more than $200,000 a year. Even by the campaign’s own reckoning, however, this tax increase would bring in only $52 billion a year — a mere one-third of 1 percent of G.D.P. And if higher taxes on society’s most productive members discourage economic growth, even this tiny number is an overestimate."

I hope that the presidential candidates start talking more about Social Security. It's a real issue, and should be paramount to college students who are heirs to their parents' retirement bills.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 09:29AM Feb 04, 2008 by College Republicans in Social Security  |  Comments[0]