There is a level of crazy in the discussion of Social Security that is not healthy for the nation, and the millions who depend upon the system. Instead of a serious discussion, the debate about Social Security belongs on the Discovery Channel next to the show “The Search For Big Foot.”
At this point, the experts at the Social Security Administration believe that about half of those who are now 80 will outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. That is a serious problem, deserving the attention of those in Washington.
The nation’s discussion on the other hand is an eco chamber of memes and myths. No myth is crazier than the idea that the money workers paid into Social Security has been spent on other things.
The facts are readily available at the Social Security Administration. From inception to the end of 2023, the Old-Age Survivors program has collected roughly $20.7 trillion in payroll tax revenue and distributed nearly $21.4 trillion in benefits to eligible retirees, when you include the cost of writing the check.
Every penny ever collected by the program has been distributed in the form of benefits. There is not even a penny left over to be spent on other things.
What is left over is a roughly $2.7 trillion dollar reserve. That excess represents interest earnings paid by Congress to the program, and nearly $1 trillion of general fund subsidies paid to the program.
No one is saying that the money was well invested, but Congress hasn’t been stealing from the program. In fact, it has been padding the books through subsidies.
What makes this myth particularly puzzling is no one agrees upon who stole the money. The left blames the right, and the right blames the left. Ironically enough, both sides enable the politicians who wish to duck and weave around the issue by blaming the nameless forces of malfeasance. The program drifts half-a-league forward to insolvency because there is no foundation of fact on which to build a rational discussion. Opponents in the debate largely exchange hyperbole designed to inflame voters rather than move the discussion forward. Someone stole your money!
Current seniors should be leading this discussion. These people have been promised life altering benefit cuts in the 2030s for roughly 30 years. This is the promise that politicians talk about keeping. Instead of triggering the innate curiosity about a rather disturbing possibility, voters are absorbed by the absurd.
Whether you believe that LBJ took your hard-earned dollars or whether you believe that Bush snuck into the vault to pay for the War in Iraq, you are part of the stagnation of Social Security reform.
Your willingness to believe is a threat to everyone else.
Brenton Smith (think@heartland.org) is a policy advisor with The Heartland Institute.
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