Social Security reform stands to be a hot topic over the next year going into the 2012 election. Its solvency is in question amidst reports that all programs will go bankrupt in the coming decades. Recent reports cite 2017 as the year that the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) will run out of money to pay disability benefits. Any presidential hopeful will have to come up with ways to reform Social Security for the better.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has been taking aim at Social Security of late, repeatedly referring to it as a “Ponzi scheme,” a fraudulent scheme whereby people get money that newcomers pay into the scheme in a cycle that repeats itself. Perry says that young people are working and paying into the system, but that it is not going to be around for them when they need the benefits. He has referred to the program as a “New Deal-era entitlement program” that was “unconstitutional” when President Roosevelt created it.
Are Governor Perry’s tough words the kind of approach needed to fix Social Security? Anything drastic would likely meet with fierce opposition from Americans. The majority of people strongly support Social Security programs, which provide benefits to Americans most in need, such as disabled workers, retired workers and family members of the deceased.
Any cuts to programs would have to be closely tailored to specific goals and avoid hurting an excessive number of beneficiaries. By an almost two to one margin, Americans oppose cuts in general, but given the financial problems mentioned at the beginning of the post, it is almost inevitable that something has to change.
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security SSI lawyers
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