Monday, June 15, 2009

U.S. News: The Future of Social Security: Not Good

Kimberly Palmer of U.S. News & World Report talks about Social Security and young Americans.

I spent the morning at the Youth Entitlements Summit on Capitol Hill, where 20-somethings quizzed economists about the future of Social Security, Medicare, and the financial security of our country. I left feeling like young people have a lot to worry about.

Click here to read the whole story.

2 comments:

James said...

But in response to a question about whether young people might see their Social Security benefits
cut, Spratt had a reassuring response. Political support for Social Security is so strong, he said, they even moderate cuts would be hard to make.

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Disingenuous response because the required funding for the entitlement programs will have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere, in view of the large fiscal problems this country faces in the years ahead, will be these younger generations in one form or an another, whether they know it or not.

The notion that we can have it all without any pain is a critical part of the problem with the narrative presented by Spratt and others.

Andrew G. Biggs said...

Good point. The political support argument implies either raising taxes -- in which case, why not raise them today? -- or a continual kicking of the debt can down the road.