While I was in Dallas earlier this week, Cato put out this commentary reminding us that the longer we wait on Social Security reform, the bigger the change will be required.
Because of the failure to reform Social Security this year, the program’s future unfunded obligations have increased by $660 billion. That amounts to a debt of more than $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This comes on top of a previous unfunded obligation of $12.8 trillion.
I don’t agree entirely with the spin of the Cato article, but the punchline is accurate, in my opinion:
Sooner or later, Congress must face these issues. But thanks to Democratic obstructionism and Republican cowardice, it won’t be this year.
For an example of a government tackling the issue of underfunding of social old-age income programs, you might check out this article, which appeared in Scotland last Sunday describing some of the reform efforts going on over there.
