Economists agree that Social Security faces a financing crisis. Falling birth rates, increased life spans and reduced wage growth mean that by 2035 payroll tax revenue will be sufficient to pay only 72 percent of promised benefits, pushing millions of low-income retirees into poverty. Americans from all political, ethnic and gender groups favor reform that lets workers invest their payroll taxes in stocks and bonds. But to a few old-guard supporters of big government, private investment is heresy. Simply deny the problem exists at all.
None are correct.
First, the crisis deniers say, there's no hurry for reform. Social Security, they boast, can pay full benefits until 2035 without changing a thing by drawing on its Trust Fund. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that will have to be financed by raising taxes, borrowing from the public, or reducing benefits or other expenditures. Second, the crisis deniers claim that demographic and economic predictions made by Social Security's Board of Trustees are overly pessimistic. In a bizarre twist, they accuse the Trustees of intentionally fudging its estimates to promote privatization.