Finally, someone in the federal government is talking about resolving one of the biggest problems facing the nation.
But we need more than talk.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is calling for immediate fiscal reforms to save the Social Security checks millions of Americans receive each month.
Everyone has known this is a serious problem, but it became even more urgent lately when trustees of the fund calculated that cuts in retirement checks would come n 2032 unless something is done.
Scott, former governor of Florida and a successful businessman before that said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” that lawmakers have spent years avoiding difficult decisions on entitlement programs and federal spending, even as Social Security’s retirement trust fund moves closer to insolvency.
“It’s really frustrating. This place is like kick the can, kick the can, kick the can. Don’t do it. Don’t do the hard things,” Scott said. “Well, the hard thing is to take care of the American people.”
If Congress fails to act, the payroll tax revenue that funds retirees would be sufficient to pay only about 78% of scheduled benefits, resulting in an automatic reduction for beneficiaries.
There are obvious fixes, such as increasing the retirement age or the payroll tax but weak-kneed politicians fear they would be blamed rather than credited.
“The trust fund for Social Security goes away. It’s out of money in … 2032. That means everybody on Social Security will get about a 24% cut. That’s unfair. They paid their money, and we need to fix the program — now,” Scott said.
Retirement isn’t the only federal program in trouble.
Scott also pointed to broader fiscal challenges facing Medicare’s long-term finances, annual deficits and mounting interest costs on the national debt.
“We’ve got Medicare, we’ve got to fix Medicare. We’ve got a $2 trillion a year deficit. We’ve got over $1 trillion a year of interest expense. We’re seeing inflation caused by massive government spending. Let’s fix it,” he said.
One way to start on the problem is obvious.
“Balance the budget,” Scott said, noting that he balanced the budget in Florida as governor. Republicans balanced the federal budget in the 1990s.
“You probably balance your budget at home. You can do it. Just stop spending money. It’s not that hard,” Scott said.
Social Security provides benefits to nearly 70 million Americans. It never was intended to be the sole source of retirement income, but it is an important part to many people.
Reasons for the shortage in funds include continual boosts in benefits, the retirement of the baby boom generation and a declining ratio of workers to beneficiaries.
Scott also said Republicans heading into the fall elections must focus on economic concerns affecting households across the country.
“What are we doing to get the cost of living down? What are we doing to protect Social Security and Medicare? So what are we doing on the pocketbook issues for all Americans?” Scott said. “That’s what we have to do, and that’s how we’ll win this fall.”
Scott is correct in saying Republicans would gain votes by taking the lead on this problem, but there’s an even better reason: It’s the right thing to do.
We could not reach Scott but we expect him to follow up his talk with some legislation that will help save Social Security.
