Social Security checks printed in Philadelphia, PA. Photographer: Dennis Brack/Bloomberg.
In the Washington Post, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler, president and senior vice president respectively of the centrist think tank Third Way, pen and op-ed about the need for entitlement reform:
There is a rising chorus on the left … that our fiscal conversation should be declared over and plans for meaningful entitlement reforms mothballed. These voices argue that we can have substantial new spending on public investments, a secure safety net, no middle-class tax increase — all without addressing entitlement spending.
They lay out some much-needed truths in arguing that this is not the case:
In the mid-1960s, the federal government spent $3 on public investments for every $1 on the major entitlement programs. By the early 1970s, the ratio was one to one. Last year, it flipped. The federal government spent $3 on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for every $1 on federal investments, according to our analysis of data from the Office of Management and Budget. By 2022, the ratio will be one to five. In other words, entitlement programs are drowning out public investments just as international competition and technology demand that we need these investments the most.
They also note that Social Security is getting more fiscally unsustainable:
Over the past 10 years, the Social Security insolvency date had leapt forward from 2042 to 2033. The hope was that an improving economy would push the date farther out. It did not, and every indicator of Social Security health worsened between the 2012 and 2013 trustee reports.
Cowan and Kessler conclude: "The country and Democrats face real fiscal choices. Avoiding them in favor of fantasies is not the answer."
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