I find it most disturbing that the defenders of the current system (Congressman Xavier Becerra & Congresswoman Karen Thurman) assert that there is no crisis with Social Security by pointing to the large "Trust Fund" (and apparently the solvency of the system)which should not be exhausted until 2034.
In fact, as Congressmen Archer and Hulshof point out, the "Trust Fund" is an accounting fiction filled with IOU's from other areas of the federal government. There are no physical assets in this "Trust Fund" which can be redeemed without the government finding other sources of cash, most likely by raising taxes or massive borrowings from the public when Social Security's current funding surplus turns negative in 2014.
The defenders of the current system under-represent the magnitude of our country's problem with Social Security by not taking into account the impact of the cash flow requirements for actually funding the obligations of the system after 2014. Raising taxes reduces our real income and stunts economic growth and borrowing from the public on a grand scale will cause interest rates to rise, also stunting economic growth.
Defenders of Social Security should understand that they are mortgaging our country's economic future to prop up a system which is flawed in its design and masked by an accounting fiction that too many people accept uncritically.
