Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com
Published - Friday, June 02, 2006
Let commission kick-start Social Security reform
It's a $37 trillion scandal. In May, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds reported that the two programs have promised $37 trillion more in benefits than they can deliver.
The announcement hardly made a ripple in Washington, D.C., where the looming Social Security and Medicare crisis has long produced political paralysis.
A congressman nicknamed “the conscience of the House” is to introduce a plan that just may be the country's best chance to shake Washington into action. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., wants a bipartisan commission created to propose a reform plan that the House and Senate would be required to vote on.
Wolf's plan deserves the full support of Congress and the White House.
Wolf's idea employs as its model the bipartisan commission now used to propose military base closings. The base closings commission was created because Congress so often did nothing about closing bases because it feared to make decisions sure to be locally unpopular.
Social Security and Medicare are similar issues because tough decisions about reducing benefits or raising taxes, however necessary, are sure to be unpopular.
The commission Wolf envisions would conduct hearings around the country and, within nine months, propose solutions. The House and Senate would be required to vote on the commission's plan, though each chamber and the White House could submit an alternative, as long as it achieved a result at least as good as the commission's plan.
The commission would deal not only with reform of Social Security and Medicare but also of Medicaid, food stamps and all other programs that make commitments to beneficiaries.
Wolf's proposal follows a similar plan floated by President Bush in his State of the Union speech earlier this year, after his proposal to create private accounts for Social Security investments fell flat last year. But the Bush commission has failed to materialize because the president indicated he will not accept tax increases as part of a solution. Wolf's proposal does not make the same mistake. His commission would consider all options.
The president should support the Wolf plan.
Social Security and Medicare reform ought to be top priorities for Congress. The aging of the baby boom generation promises to ravage both programs. Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2017. At that point, the government will have to start using income taxes to pay benefits. A similar fate will befall Medicare.
One trustee estimated that unless the programs are overhauled, one quarter of all federal income taxes will have to be used to fund Social Security and Medicare benefits by 2020.
Congress knows all this, yet it has declined to act because action will require raising the retirement age, increasing payroll taxes and, probably, even more changes.
A bipartisan commission is the right solution and not a moment too soon. For the sake of the baby boomers' children and grandchildren, it's time for action.
All stories copyright 2006 Holmen Courier and other attributed sources.