The George W. Bush administration inspired the fantasy among the right wing faithful that the country might someday see the light and realize that Social Security must be phased out. This fantasy is only dying slowly. The budget reduction commission may represent the last best hope for those who believe it imperative that we end the error that Franklin Roosevelt foisted upon the country almost 75 years ago. Some findings from a recent national survey conducted for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare ought to make the anti-Social Security zealots cry:
- Americans do NOT believe Social Security is a major cause of the deficit – it is only cited by 2% of Americans as the primary cause of the deficit.
- Three out of four Americans do not think policymakers should make significant changes to Social Security in order to reduce the national deficit.
- Two out of three Americans (64%) think that Social Security provides security and stability to the U.S. economy while only 20% think it is a drain on the economy, and 11% think it does some of both.
- 70% of younger Americans (under 35) believe they will need Social Security when they retire.
- 78% of Americans oppose raising Social Security’s retirement age – with two-thirds of Americans expressing strong opposition to such a proposal.
- Half of Americans support removing the current cap on Social Security wages that are taxed ($106,800). Upper income voters – that is, those who are most likely to pay higher taxes under such a proposal – are also the income group most likely to support removing the cap.
3 comments:
several distinctions need to be made. title 2 pays for itself. title 16 does not, and that to me is the primary problem we need to address. raising the cap on taxed wages would help but it needs to be measured against the t16 program to do any good.
finally, government spending and deficits are only one component of economic health. people seem to equate our bad economy with govt budgets, and that is not the whole story. govt ran huge deficits under w. bush yet we all thought things were great while our houses appreciated. so was the economy perceived as "bad" at that time, even though we ran huge deficits? no. did govt spending have anything to do with that perception? no. govt just became an easy target once things got bad, when in reality it was the financial system and housing collapse that got us here today.
if we really want to reign in govt spending, not fighting two wars would be a great start.
Title 16 is a welfare program. How could it possibly pay for itself? It's paid to needy people regardless of their contribution to the tax base, society, their families. Bums, criminals, new immigrants, hard working citizens, hard working immigrants, mentally handicapped individuals who have no ability to contribute, people who have exacerbated their mental/physical problems by drug or alcohol use. The all can get Title 16. Now you may think that there should be some more different rules that apply to T16 and that SSA should apply some societal values to the program regs, but even then, it cannot pay for itself.
The article and survey is talking about the health and public support of the title 2 program and has nothing to do with funding for title 16 which does not involve the social security trust fund.
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