I feel like we’re going to be hearing a lot about Social Security in the coming months.
Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are making a huge splash over attempts to rein in government spending. With the national debt now exceeding $36 trillion, it’s hard to argue against the idea in concept.
Yet despite all the layoffs, program cancellations, chainsaws and victory laps, the cuts announced so far will barely leave a scratch on the ballooning federal budget. That’s because half of all the money our government spends is on entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act.
We also pay nearly a billion dollars a year just in interest on all those trillions the government has borrowed – more than we currently spend on national defense.
So, without big changes to mammoth programs like Social Security and Medicare, it’s not likely we’ll see any substantial progress on reducing the deficit. And I imagine we’ll be hearing from the tens of millions of Americans who expect the government to maintain the payments they were promised – and paid for – over their working lives.
You will likely be hearing some novel ideas on reforming Social Security, from extending the full retirement age, to raising payroll taxes, even to investing the dwindling Social Security trust fund in something that earns more than government bonds over time.
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Words to the Wise
“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.”
– Andrew Carnegie
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