Social Security not only shouldn't be cut as part of the United States' debt reduction measures, but, according to Merton Bernstein, an expert on Social Security and the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, it wouldn't take much to ensure Social Security's viability 75 years into the future.
"Many have assumed that if you cut Social Security benefits, you have done something about deficits. Social Security pays its way. It has always paid its way. It has never contributed to deficits," Bernstein says.
It's projected Social Security will be able to pay benefits in full until 2037 and after that the program would be adequate to pay 75 to 80 percent of the promised benefits, he points out. "To change that to 100 percent is easy. It is not a big deal. All we have to do is set the cap on FICA taxable earnings to the point it would apply to 90 percent of total income in the entire economy."
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