If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans have agreed on in recent years, it’s to ignore the rapidly deteriorating finances of Social Security and keep its unsustainable benefits intact. The longer they dither, the worse the problem will get.
The system’s two trust funds — one for the elderly, one for the disabled — are both on course to be depleted by 2034, at which point automatic benefit cuts of about 20% are supposed to kick in. That compressed timescale means there’s no easy fix. Tweaks that phased in gently while protecting current beneficiaries could’ve balanced the books by now if ...