Reply #44: Not blowing smoke [View All]

This is from Patrick Moynihan Commission report


The Final Report of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security

Finding: Action should be taken soon to place Social Security on a fiscally sustainable course.

In the very near term, Social Security’s finances are strong, with cash flow surpluses expected for the next fifteen years. By acting now, lawmakers have an important opportunity to address the program’s
long-run financing problems while more options are available. The existence of short-term surpluses makes it easier to finance a transition to a more sustainable system, while still maintaining our commitment to current and near-term retirees.

The financing problem facing Social Security will not go away. A failure to act will only make the problems facing the system more difficult to address. It is true that there are no easy solutions to the financial problems facing Social Security, but it is equally true that a failure to act will only serve to make the solutions more difficult to achieve down the road.

In summary, the longer that action to strengthen Social Security is postponed, the more certain it is that necessary measures will include painful benefit reductions or tax increases.

Page 65


http://www.csss.gov/reports/Final_report.pdf