One of the central arguments that liberals are deploying against the stated Republican intention to pursue Social Security changes this Congress is that the “crisis” that conservatives are seizing on has already passed.
House Republicans passed a rule last month blocking the transfer of tax revenue between Social Security’s retirement and disability funds, which has been done multiple times in the past, unless the program’s overall solvency is improved. The latter fund is expected to be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2016.
Conservative have made clear their intent is to pursue changes, either to the disability fund alone or Social Security more broadly. But the liberal counter is that there is no crisis. The demographic and economic trends that have put the disability fund in jeopardy in late 2016 have passed. Transferring revenue from the retirement fund to the disability fund would keep both programs fully funded until 2033. That knocks just one year of full solvency off the retirement program, while giving 17 additional years to the disability fund.
As evidence, the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published the above chart, tracking the slowing growth of Social Security disability rolls.
“In recent months, growth in the number of DI beneficiaries has slowed to its lowest rate in 25 years,” the center’s analysts wrote.
conservatives dont care a damm about either seniors or the disabled they have the evil incarnate that is S.S if they cant privitize it and make loads of money from it for their contributors they would be as happy seeing it disolve and blow away…cause all those takers and moochers and users…ya know the elderly, the disabled, vetrans ,childern ,etc etc
There they go again…trying to bring facts into a political argument. When will they learn?
This is not going to stop the Rethugs from doing everything in their power to repeal the New Deal. They have been fighting this batter for decades; why give up now? I do hope the voters reward them for their heartlessness, their obstructionism and their complete failure to govern.
Was the word “crisis” ever a correct one to use to begin with? It seems the issue with SSDI was one of pure demographics. We have an aging population. As people age their predisposition towards becoming disabled increased dramatically, especially once people reach their 50s. Once the disabled baby boomers die off or transition into regular Social Security retirement it would seem the curve will level off, and that seems to be exactly what is happening.
As usual, the Republicans are merely interested in destroying any form of soc sec in order to make it a for profit system whereby their big donors rip off more people.
I wish the “lazy Media” would delve into the economics of the social security system and put the facts to the American people. It is really surprising how many people buy into all the alarms the right wing press and the Republicans conjure up regarding the so called perils of the soc sec system.