Rude Europeans used to tell stories, possibly apocryphal, about American tourists who would ask for directions to a famous landmark while actually standing right in front of it. “Er, EXCUSE ME, SIR! Can you tell us please the way to the Eiffel Tower?” The Parisian would look at the couple, look at the massive iron structure towering directly above them, and wonder how on earth Americans won the war.
Don’t laugh. Based on their handling of Social Security, the 535 people in Congress are even worse. So let us celebrate a momentous event that quietly occurred last week, when suddenly a few overpaid legislators in Washington looked straight up and said, “oh, wow—do you think that’s it?” Read: What most people get wrong about Social Security The subject under discussion is the financial crisis hurtling toward America’s pension plan. The Social Security trust fund faces an accounting hole of about $20 trillion. It is expected to run out of cash in about a decade—at which point benefits could be cut across the board by 20%. This problem has been looming for years. People on the “blue” team say the problem is that taxes are too low, especially on “millionaires and billionaires.” Meanwhile people on the “red” team say, no, the real problem is that benefits are too high. (For everybody else, but not for you, natu …