Restoring Social Security’s solvency doesn’t have to be all that hard. That’s important to know, given how intractable Social Security financing reform appears to be on Capitol Hill. But it’s not the lack of relatively painless fixes that makes it seem impossible to overcome Social Security’s actuarial deficit. The culprit is political polarization in Congress.
Notice that I said “relatively” painless. Overcoming Social Security’s shortfall will require either reducing currently-scheduled benefits or increasing the Social Security trust fund’s income, or both. But, I think you will agree, you can package together a number of not-huge modifications that collectively overcome Social Security’s actuarial deficit. (That deficit is the difference in the Social Security’s total income over the next 75 years and the total benefits it would be obligated to pay under current law.) “The key is to make those changes now rather than wait,” Linda Stone, senior pension fellow at the nonpartisan American Academy of Actuaries, said in an interview. “The longer we put off doing so, the more painful any solution becomes.” If you had any doubt that there are numerous ways in which Social Security’s solvency can be restored, you should take the “Social Securit …