David Barulich writes for the American Thinker about the future of Social Security.
In his N.Y. Times op-ed, … columnist Paul Krugman admitted that Social Security is indeed not like a pension plan, but rather incorporates significant wealth transfers from higher- to lower-income participants.
“The thing about Social Security is that from the beginning it was designed to encourage misconceptions. It looks, on casual inspection, like a giant version of a private pension plan. You pay into such a plan during your working years, contributing to a pension fund, and when you retire you receive payments from that fund in proportion to the amount you put in. …
“I’m pretty sure that it was set up to look like an ordinary pension fund because that made it politically easier to sell. But in reality, Social Security has never been run like a private pension …
… Republicans should take good notes, because Krugman has outlined a line of attack that they could use for reforming entitlement programs.
If you don’t like what is being said about reforming Social Security, then change the conversation. Instead, let’s talk about replacing Social Security with Personal Treasury Accounts.
The greatest myth sustaining the widespread popularity and legitimacy of Social Security is that recipients are simply getting back what they paid into it. Therefore, Republicans must convert this myth into reality to change the conversation and bypass the conventional unpalatable options for saving the Trust Fund:
*Raising the retirement age.
*Raising payroll tax rates.
*Raising the current $160,200 maximum for payroll taxes.
*Raising the percentage of Social Security benefits subject to income taxation.
Each of these options is off the table because Trump, McConnell, and McCarthy know they are election-year kryptonite. …
… Unlike Social Security, the PTA avoids all the budgetary pitfalls of changes in life expectancy, retirement age, and benefit payouts that accompany all defined benefit pension plans like Social Security. Because the PTA is a defined contribution plan, the PTA owner receives whatever he earned instead of whatever politicians in Washington decide to give him.