The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare has taken issue with some statements made by some Republican presidential candidates.
The lobby's Director of Government Relations and Policy, Dan Adcock, says Social Security has a broad bipartisan support among the public, but some of the candidates have made some statements that he says are not true. He says Governor Chris Christie said Social Security will be insolvent in 8 years. Adcock says the potential insolvency date is 2034, some 18 years away, and even if nothing is done then payments would continue at 75 percent of now.
He says helping to stabilize the program does have an option...
"....could address that by eliminating or raising the current $118,000 cap on Social Security payroll taxes...."
Adcock thinks the attacks are a deliberate political strategy...
"....to convince people that the bank is empty then it's a lot easier to rob and then rob in the form of benefit cuts...."
He says the trust fund isn't broke, because if that fund goes broke, the entire U.S. government would be in default. He also chided Senator Rand Paul who said people on Social Security disability were largely faking problems. Adcock says a GAO study found less than one percent of those getting disability were doing so improperly.
More information is here.
