Robert Reich in The New Republic

On Social Security: Open the lockbox & throw away key: Better reforms needed

A serious approach to reforming Social Security would involve reforms like raising the retirement age to 70 (sensible, given that we're living longer) and making the benefit formula more progressive so wealthy retirees don't end up collecting such fat Social Security checks every month. But keeping sacrosanct a fictional account called the yearly Social Security surplus is the silliest way imaginable. Not only does it require balancing the rest of the budget even when deficit spending is needed to keep the economy moving, but it also prevents the government from borrowing money to spend on all sorts of other useful objectives--including objectives that might fuel economic growth and help save Social Security.

By pledging not to touch the Social Security surplus and by criticizing Bush for doing so, Democrats are putting themselves in a fiscal straitjacket that has nothing to do with the real issues facing the country. They'd be wise to open the lockbox and throw away the key.

Source: The New Republic, "Out of the Box" Sep 10, 2001

The above quotations are from Columns and news articles in The New Republic magazine. Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles in The New Republic magazine. Click here for other excerpts by Robert Reich. Click here for a profile of Robert Reich.
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