Accounting Path To Save Social Security?

Trump insists he won’t cut “one penny” from Social Security or Medicare (while Biden has fudged by increasing cost of elder folks’ “Advantage” plans). Realistic, considering 2035 is supposed doomsday date? There IS a path, we’re told …

 While conceding “Social Security’s finances are in dire straits,” Andrew Duehren urged in a WSJ article, “Don’t Panic.” Duehren reminds that there’s no reason the depleted & soon to be insolvent Social Security trust funds used to pay retiree benefits can’t be replaced by general funds. Granted, such an accounting adjustment would require ACTION, accompanied by Congress & POTUS answering “tough questions about federal spending & who the winners & losers would likely be. But, that political poison pill, Duehren suggests, is a better way to sidestep the even worse “radioactive debate” over higher FICA taxes or how much to cut granny’s Social Security check or how many more years will grandpa have to work before collecting a dime.

Duehren argues that, “to some experts, the end of the trust funds wouldn’t require a substantive change to how Social Security is financed.” Moreover, they say, “Congress will have a straightforward option to keep delivering full benefits.” The catch, again, is that without Social Security cost savings or new revenue, Congress would have to impose deep spending cuts in a federal budget that is already blown up to $35 trillion.

Davd Soul