Americans Can't Have it Both Ways
By Bradley Blakeman
Newsmax.com
How many Americans remember Paul Harvey?
For those who don’t know who he was, he was an
American treasure. Harvey was a legendary radio
broadcaster delivering news and commentary in a
plain talking common-sense style that was never
divisive and always informative.
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He started in radio at the age of 14 in 1933 in
Tulsa, Okla., reading news and producing ad spots.
After completing schooling and a brief service in
the military, he settled in Chicago in 1944 and
began his professional radio career.
His presence on radio lasted over 60 years. At the
apex of his career, he had over 24 million listeners
on 1200 plus radio stations.
He was best known for his signature sign off, “Good
Day!”
For his lifetime of achievement in radio and
journalism he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by
President George W. Bush in 2005. Harvey died in
March of 2009 at the age of 90.
In 1985, at the age of 67, Paul Harvey aired a radio
commentary warning the American people of the
untenable funding and benefit obligations of Social
Security. His words are as true today as when he
said the following 26 years ago:
“Many Americans believe that any discontinuation of
Social Security is just unthinkable.
Seventy percent of Americans believe it should
provide a basic standard of living and 90 percent of
Americans oppose any cuts whatsoever in Social
Security benefits and yet at the same time the same
survey reveals that most Americans think their taxes
are too high and 86 percent of Americans consider
our federal budget deficit a serious problem.
We all want it both ways — lower taxes and high
benefits.
And with one in six Americans receiving some — or
all — of their income from Social Security, it is
understandable that Congress is unwilling to do
anything but to increase Social Security benefits.
So, that brings us to the serious problem of our
budget deficit of which Social Security is a
substantial factor.
Because of the broad-based support for Social
Security, lawmakers are going to keep it alive by
transfusion or whatever, for as long as they can.
But, if future increases are geared toward
inflation, it may make the cost of Social Security
prohibitive, and thus COLA’s, (cost of living
adjustments) — which 80 percent of Americans
support.
Such an increase would not be sustainable.
Retirees are going to want to see a lot of other
extravagances curtailed first, but pruning Social
Security will be less objectionable only when it is
the alternative to national bankruptcy . . . Good
Day.”
Well, Harvey was right. Lawmakers kept Social
Security going by propping it up with taxpayer
borrowed transfusion after transfusion, decade after
decade, knowing full well that sooner — rather than
later — it was destined for insolvency.
So, why is Social Security going broke? In 1940,
(five years after
Social Security was enacted), an American had to
attain the age of 65 to receive full benefits. In
1940, however, most people never made it to 65. That
is not the case today. The average life expectancy
today is 76, while the age of full retirement
benefits is 67.
Do the math. There are too many beneficiaries.
Social Security is funded from taxes taken by
current workers to pay the benefits of current
retirees.
Today money goes in and goes right out. Current
workers' contributions are not being “saved” for
their benefit in the future. In 1950, there were 7.3
working-age people for each person over 65; now, the
ratio is 4.7 to 1, and it is predicted to drop to
2.7 to 1 by 2035. Do the math. There are not enough
people paying in.
The reality is this: today Americans cannot work 40
years and then retire for 20 on the government’s
dime.
For decades, Congress has either raided Social
Security funds to pay for other than retiree-related
expenses, or they have totally ignored the reality
that Social Security is destined for insolvency
unless and until it is totally and completely
retooled and salvaged at great political turmoil and
resentment by the public.
Everyone of working age knows they are going to get
screwed in our retirement and not get that which was
either paid in or promised by the government.
The question for Americans is this: would you rather
have some government supplied retirement or none at
all?
The “day of reckoning” for Social Security has come.
For decades, politicians from both sides of the
aisle have been equally incompetent in their failure
to fix Social Security at a time that would have
caused less disruption and public consternation.
This presidential election is the most important in
decades. We can no longer “kick the can down the
road.”
Now is the time to fix Social Security for
generations to come because the alternative is
nothing short of a national catastrophe . . . Good
Day!
Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy
assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04.
He is currently a professor of Politics and Public
Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent
contributor to Fox News Opinion. Read more reports
from Bradley Blakeman —
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