Social Security Must Be Saved

Opinion

October 8, 2009

Opinion

BY DAN KITCHELL, CNHI News Service The Commonwealth Journal Thu Oct 08, 2009, 12:10 PM EDT

BY DAN KITCHELL

CNHI News Service

Supply and demand is such a simple concept, you’d think we’d get this one right by now.

The fact of the matter is that the demand for U.S. goods and services has decreased, and that’s why we’re in a recession, and have been since George W. Bush was president. When the economy is slow, workers are laid off, consumption declines and the downward spiral of bad things begins. People become pessimistic about everything. Some even blame, gasp, the media and columnists. For shame.

The real concern with this latest recession is not that we will never come out of it. Many, in fact, have suggested it’s already in our rearview mirror, while other experts say we’re getting out of it, even if we’re not out of it yet.

But the worst news is that Social Security has become a casualty of the recession. There are fewer people working, and more people taking early retirement or disability. The net effect of that is that Social Security will be paying out more money than it is taking in to its trust in 2010 and 2011.

For years, politicians of both parties have warned of the day when that would happen. Doomsayers pledged to make it a lockbox entitlement that no one could touch to pay for their pet congressional program. In every case, there were reassurances that Social Security would be there for every American retiree.

Unfortunately, the current recession is not the only problem facing Social Security. The Labor Department reports that the ratio of jobs to unemployed Americans is the lowest it has been since it began keeping records. Add to that the reality that, at some point, thousands of veterans will be returning to the work force once they leave Iraq and Afghanistan, and that should raise unemployment levels. Add to that the feel-good news that our life expectancy continues to rise, and suddenly we have some harsh realities.

Baby Boomers are budget busters for Social Security, and once we all retire, it will require more workers to support us than ever before.

Something has to give. Most of us who have paid into Social Security — make that all of us if we’ve ever worked — want the “give” to not be us, as in “give up” Social Security. Means testing, or basing benefits on what retirement assets we have, is an issue that’s been touched on before in reform efforts. But there also are those who would contend that if someone has paid for entitlement benefits, they ought to receive the full benefit they have coming, even if they don’t need the money.

The central issue is that Social Security must provide for retirees for decades to come. By design, Social Security is not a poor concept, but it did not project the realities before us. The federal government has to come up with a way to provide more funding for Social Security if the economy does not improve.

Before radical reforms happen, some attention has to be paid to related issues. One of those issues is personal income. With levels either flat or rising minimally, the rise in Social Security revenue will be miniscule compared to the demand for it. The other issue is simply the economy. If the economy continues to hemorrhage high-paying manufacturing jobs and replace workers with service sector positions that pay a fraction of the salaries manufacturing has paid, it will hold down personal income growth for an extended period.

The latest news on Social Security will probably redouble calls for Social Security investments in the stock market, and there will be critics of that as well. But regardless of the debate, government cannot let “Social Security” become a contradiction in terms.

If Social Security cannot provide for the people who have contributed to it and expect it to be there when they need it most, Uncle Sam is no better than Bernie Madoff with federal authorization.

Social Security has to be predictably profitable and compatible with actuarial tables. If it can’t be, our national debt in the trillions, will grow exponentially over the next 50 years. Much like the growing cost of health care, Americans cannot afford to go without it.

Text Only

Opinion

Separation of State & Mosque
March 1, 2012 1 Photo
Clifford Calder
Clifford Arnold Calder, age 69 of Somerset departed this life on Monday, February 27, 2012 at his residence.
Visitation for Mr. Calder will be Saturday, March 3 at 12 noon at the chapel of Lake Cumberland Funeral Home with his funeral service to follow at 2 p.m. Bro. Patrick Butcher and Bro. David Muse will officiate.
Burial will be in the Singleton Cemetery in Lincoln County.In lieu of flowers, the family requests expressions of sympathy be made to the Clifford Arnold Calder Memorial Fund c/o Lake Cumberland Funeral Home.
A complete obituary will be published in Friday, March 2 edition.
Lake Cumberland Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements for Clifford Arnold Calder.

February 29, 2012
Why not charter schools?
The number of parents choosing to home school their children has risen by 50 percent in the last five years. I believe this is a direct indicator of the frustration parents have in the interference of the federal government in dictating what their children should be taught.
State Representative Brad Montell announced the pre-filing of legislation that, if passed, would establish a charter school initiative in Kentucky. (House Bill BR 117) Kentucky is one of only nine states in the nation that does not have charter schools, helping place Kentucky at number 37 out of 50 states in quality of education.
In charter schools, if educators are performing below standard, they can be terminated, not reassigned or given additional training. Most charter schools are non-union and non-tenured, so an educator knows he/she must perform to a high degree of excellence to retain employment. They can increase their chances of advancement through performance incentives.

December 30, 2011 1 Photo
Opinon: Don't Penalize Players for Being Good
Sports are intrinsically amoral.
Not immoral, as in evil. Amoral, as in indifferent to right or wrong.
That is not to say that you can’t do something immoral — something that flies in the face of conventionally accepted ideas of good and bad behavior — while playing sports. Look at Ndamukong Suh, the Detroit Lions defensive tackle who’s expected to be suspended for a game or two for stomping, apparently on purpose, another player during a Thanksgiving game with the Green Bay Packers.
Most Kentucky basketball fans would recall Duke forward Christian Laettner’s infamous stomp on UK’s Aminu Timberlake during the 1992 NCAA College Basketball Tournament, and think he probably deserved a fate similar to Suh’s.
But in and of themselves, there’s nothing morally good or bad about throwing a ball, or kicking a ball, or hitting a puck with a stick, or anything of that nature.
There are only the rules of the game. Break the rules, and the game has a system built in to penalize you for it.

November 29, 2011 1 Photo
Road goes back to property owner
October 25, 2011 1 Photo
Fool me once...

When putting pen to paper (or fingers to keypad), it is so easy to fall into the trap of wanting to denigrate those with opposing views relating to political beliefs and social issues. I try hard to constantly remind myself that there are two sides to every argument, and each side can be as passionate about their viewpoint as the other. It is tempting to accuse someone of being an idiot if we passionately disagree with them. The term “idiot” is used to describe someone who is weak minded, of low IQ, or incapable of learning. Anyone who reaches the hallowed halls of Congress or the Whitehouse is definitely not an idiot, but they can be misguided. George W. Bush, Yale graduate with a Texas size ego, and Barak Obama, Harvard graduate with a Chicago thug style political background, are two such men.

October 6, 2011 1 Photo
What does it maen?
/11. An instantly recognizable reference. One of those references to an event that all United States citizens of a certain age will always recognize. We will always ask, “what were you doing when you heard” and the question will be answered without a second's delay. It was an event that seared itself into our national psyche along with other societal tremors. 9/11 ushered in a new age for the United States and the decade since has brought systemic changes to our society, some for the better, some for the worse. 9/11 revealed in us a willingness to help others at great risk to our own lives and uncovered a fear that we may not be as safe as we thought we were. 9/11 has been used as both reason and excuse for a lot of things, many not very reasonable.

September 13, 2011 1 Photo
The day of indelible memories

On a normal day, in my average, everyday, normal life, I would be hard pressed to tell you what I had for dinner the previous day. No, I’m not suffering from dementia or Alzheimer disease. The mind of the average person does not register routine activities as important enough to be a lasting memory. Not so on September 11, 2001. I would venture to say that the majority of the people in America have some indelible memories of what they were doing that day.

September 11, 2011
Dana Allen
Dana Michele Allen, age 25, of Somerset, departed this life on Sunday, April 25, 2010 in Lexington, Ky.

April 27, 2010 1 Photo
Ruth Morris Ruth Morris, 66, of Somerset, Ky., passed away Friday, April 16, 2010, at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset.
April 20, 2010
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Social Security Must Be Saved

Opinion

Site Map