Why is the president misleading Americans about the problems that Social Security faces?

His radio address this week suggested that Social Security would become bankrupt if no changes were made to the system. In fact, if no changes are made to the system, and if the economy does as poorly as the Social Security Administration’s deliberately conservative assumptions project, around 2042, the Social Security Administration will be able to pay only 73 percent of the benefits then due to recipients. Those benefits, however, will be equal or higher in real dollars than current recipients enjoy.

This doesn’t really sound like bankruptcy. It sounds like a problem that minor structural adjustments can easily address. The president’s alternative to Social Security, partially privatized accounts, has been tried in Chile and Sweden. Those results suggest that private accounts work really well for the brokers who consume up to half the payments workers make in fees, but not so well for workers, who have to work past retirement or receive lower benefits for the private systems to work.

Why does the president want to add several trillion dollars to the deficit rather than make minor structural adjustments? Could it be that Wall Street won’t get any money from a sensible solution, but will make hundreds of millions in annual fees when the president loots Social Security and explodes the deficit to privatize the system?

That, indeed, would be a very good reason for the president to lie about Social Security.

Margaret Imber, Turner