Social Security Is Just Fine

Social Security turned 75 last week, but nobody felt much like celebrating, because the program is under an “unnecessary, unfair and—let’s not mince words—cruel attack,” writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Some Democrats and most Republicans claim social security is in crisis, and must be cut down to size. But their math is preposterous. Social Security has been running on a surplus for the last 25 years.

Over that span it’s built a cash cushion that shouldn’t run out until 2037. The only reason to cut benefits now is that “conservatives hate Social Security for ideological reasons: its success undermines their claim that government is always the problem.” They don’t seem to care about the hardship its cuts would cause. The argument that we should raise the eligibility age, because people can now work later in life, is “only true for affluent, white-collar workers—the people who need Social Security least.” (More Paul Krugman stories.)