Social Insecurity

Is my comfortable retirement about to blow up?

Photo by Nigel Hoare for Unsplash+

Back in the 1970s, a young office mate who had just received his first paycheck was pissed off at seeing all the deductions that chipped away his already-minimal take-home pay. “And 7.5% for Social Security and Medicare,” he grumbled. “By the time I’m eligible they won’t even exist.”

He was wrong. He and I both collect Social Security – at least, as of this writing. But it may not be for much longer, which angers me. In fact, I am mad as hell.

This is not political. This is personal.

In case you’ve put yourself on a strict news diet, here is what has happened so far:

The President and Mr. Chainsaw have attacked Social Security for paying benefits to people 150 and 200 years old – a lie based on misunderstanding a work-around in an outdated programming language. Mr. Chainsaw described Social Security as “a Ponzi scheme” – another falsehood.

As retirement expert Mark Miller notes, “One way to shrink or transform a federal program is to tell the public that it isn’t working, or that it is riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse. And that seems to be the game plan for Social Security.”

The President made a promise that he would not cut Social Security benefits. Given the President’s track record for making bold declarations and reversing them within days, one can be forgiven for not finding this reassuring.

Four Threats

In fact, the Administration has threatened Social Security in four different ways, notes author and economist Teresa Ghilarducci.

• Benefit Interruptions. With Mr. Chainsaw’s little DOGErs, who have zero experience in administering complex programs, running roughshod over the Social Security system, former Social Security administrator Martin O’Malley has predicted, “You’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits. I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.”

• Customer Service Disruption. The Administration plans to fire 7,000 employees (12% of the workforce) and to close 45 field offices. Typical wait times for telephone queries are already longer than 30 minutes, and the ratio of employees to beneficiaries will go from 1:821 in 2009 to 1:1,440 after the projected staff reductions. New enrollments are likely to be delayed even further, as they can’t be automated and require employees to process them.

• Rush to Insolvency. On its present course, Social Security will be forced to reduce benefits by 17% by 2035. (That’s just 10 years, people!) But two Administration tax law proposals – ending taxes on tip income and eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits for high-income recipients – would force benefit cuts one year sooner.

  (The insolvency problem could largely be solved with one move, which Congress has steadfastly avoided: Making high-income earners pay their fair share. This year, Social Security taxes are only levied on the first $176,100 in salary. Taxing all earnings would close up to 90% of the shortfall.)

• Cutting Independent Research. The Administration has cancelled six contracts with university-led consortia conducting research and evaluation on the system. What we know about Social Security impacts and performance comes from independent studies by experts. Without it, transparency and accountability disappear.

Something else alarms me: The little DOGErs have gained access to our confidential information at Social Security, as well as at the Internal Revenue Service. Whether they actually can and will use that access to manipulate benefits or taxes is an unknown. (Officially, they say they won’t. You can believe what you want.) What worries me even more is the message that it sends to citizens about whether their personal data is safe in government hands. Nothing can undermine voluntary compliance with rules and laws faster than a government that abuses citizen’s privacy.

Cutting a Lifeline

I am anxious and angry personally. But it’s not just me, or you. Social Security sends monthly checks to more than 67 million Americans. Tens of millions of Americans depend on those checks. As a senior government official told National Public Radio, “The public is going to suffer terribly as a result of this. Local field offices will close, hold times will increase, and people will be sicker, hungry, or die when checks don't arrive or a disability hearing is delayed just one month too late.”

I paid Social Security taxes on every dollar I made for 48 years. In return, it was understood that I would receive payments from Social Security when I retired. The Administration sees that as an entitlement. Hell yes! I feel entitled to it because it was in my contract with the government. I dutifully fulfilled my part of the contract for nearly half a century. A government that expects its citizens to treat it with respect and honor has to be respectable and honorable in return. Millions of Americans are depending on our government to keep its part of the bargain.