Every time a student in my class says that he/she doesn't believe Social Security will not be there for him/her, I remind him/her that the only way to CUT Social Security payments will be for members of Congress -- including members of the House of Representatives who will have to face re-election in two years or less --- will have to explicitly VOTE to cut Social Security payments.
If the "trust funds" run out of money there is no AUTOMATIC cut to SS payments -- Congress has to vote to reduce (or eliminate) them. Now -- every once in a while they can cut them by extending by three months the period before the COLA goes into effect (happened as part of the Greenspan Commissions "reforms"), or raising the retirement age (again, part of the Greenspan Commission reforms), or by taxing the benefits (part of OBRA 1993). But a bald-faced cut -- I ask the students to imagine a COngress doing that --- and they immediately realize that there is no economic issue involved -- it's all politics. I say -- if you want Social Security to be there it will be -- if you get snookered into thinking it CAN'T be there -- then, yes, you might lose it. The argument works every time.
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
