The announcement by the Social Security trustees that the system will be insolvent by 2032 has gotten a lot of recent attention, as it should. The prospect of current recipients experiencing a 22% cut in benefits (full disclosure; I am one of those recipients) should be enough to make anyone sit up and take notice. But it should not surprise anyone. Some of the reaction since the most recent announcement reminds one of the scene from Casablanca where Captain Renault closes down Rick’s establishment, exclaiming that he is “Shocked! Shocked! To find that gambling is going on here”, just prior to being presented with his winnings. Speaker Mike Johnson, in response to questions in response to the trustees report, said that the Congress had a plan to address entitlement spending “next year”. President Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he would never cut “one penny” from Social Security and Medicare, yet inaction will result in cuts totaling more than half a million pennies per year for the average Social Security recipient.
School Authors: Philip Joyce