How to Save Social Security Essay

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SSA Status Report

The author of this report has been asked to do an analysis of the Social Security program as it exists in the United States. First, there will be a look at how Social Security was initially envisioned and planned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Second, there will be an analysis done of what is projected to happen with Social Security over the next twenty to thirty years. Third, the author of this report will provide two recommendations that will help improve the viability and existence of Social Security over the next generation. Finally, there will be an evaluation of how these recommendations can be implemented given the contentious political environment that exists right now. While petty fights and demagoguery will surely get in the way, the Social Security system is in bad long-term shape and needs to be properly fixed and adjusted immediately.

Analysis

According to a review of the event by History.com, the enactment of Social Security was done as a means to prevent the unemployed and the elderly from becoming impoverished and destitute. Indeed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) took the helm of the country in 1932 when it was in the depths of the Great Depression. The Social Security Act was part of a broader set of laws that came to be known as the "New Deal." To use FDR's own words in reference to the Social Security and other acts involved, he said that the act was meant to address and help "young people (who) have come to wonder what would be their lot when they come to old age." Further, he said that "we can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life." The Social Security Act was initially a buffer for the unemployed but has since evolved into primarily being a cash benefit for preventing the disabled and the elderly from living in poverty and squalor (History.

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com, 2015).

As for the viability of Social Security over the next twenty to thirty years, the basic answer is that the system is essentially doomed to run out of money. The same is actually true of Medicare. As stated by the 2014 annual report issued by board of trustees for the two programs, "neither Medicare nor Social Security can sustain projected long-run program costs in full under currently scheduled financing, and legislative changes are necessary to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers." The news report from which that report was gleaned, as offered by CBS, is quick to point out that the apparent doomsday clock is set to approximately to the year 2033. At that point, the trust funds for Social Security will be depleted. However, rather than the money just drying up and stopping, what will happen is that the payouts given to Social Security recipients will simply be reduced based on the funds that are available. The "time is out" clock for Medicare actually comes sooner, that being in 2030 based on current projections (Vernon, 2014).

There are two major reasons for all of this coming to pass. First, the aforementioned "trust fund" has largely been spent on things other than Social Security. Many assert that the idea that Social Security tax (which is technically withheld separately from income taxes and Medicare) actually goes into the same pool of many as regular income tax withholdings and often gets spent as such. The problem is that it is happening so much that the money that should have been going to Social Security has gone to things like military/defense and other social programs. However, the real catalyst when it comes to the looming insolvency stems from the fact that there was a huge spike and then a swoon when it comes to the birth rate in the United States. The term….....

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