General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Stop it, stop saying Social Security needs reform, you are a Democrat, right? [View all]HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)I've done that, as has Roger Fox, and it's enlightening.
The SS Trustees make 3 forecasts; a low-cost, high-cost, and middle of the road forecast. Sanders is quoting the middle-of-the-road forecast, and that's the one that's always quoted in the media too.
But the fact is: the low-cost forecast has been more accurate on average than either of the other two.
The second fact is: the middle-of-the-road forecast is based on dubious assumptions about growth, employment, productivity etc -- essentially based on the idea that we're going to be in recession for the next 75 years.
A third fact: when Reagan jacked up SS taxes in 1983 he *also* said it would 'save' SS forever. But it didn't. When politicians say things like that, they're bullshitting you, and Sanders is no exception.
A question: There's nearly $3 trillion dollars in the Trust Fund. That represents a debt owed to SS. Why is Sanders promoting *increasing* SS taxes at this time? What is the point in collecting even more SS taxes before that debt is paid down? The Trust Fund is still *growing,* getting bigger. Why does sanders want to collect even more money to make it even bigger????
The people who designed SS knew what they were doing; they created the most successful and longest-lived retirement security program in history. Every step away from their design is a step toward destruction of the program, and that's the aim of all these phoney 'solutions'.
Raising the cap is promoted as the 'left' solution as v. the 'right' solution of private accounts. But they're both bad.
First and foremost, because the 'crisis' is not as advertised.