Open Social Security window

Congress is faced with the choice of strengthening Social Security with moderate repairs now or saving it for use as a campaign cudgel in next year’s elections. Guess which it is doing?

Members of Congress of serious mien have allowed in interviews during the last week or so that, “The window of opportunity for reforming Social Security has closed for this year,” or some other equally compelling thought. Notice that they don’t say why it has closed, as if it were obvious or that they had more pressing business to attend to than righting the retirement system used, eventually, by 95 percent of the U.S. public. (How many hours a day, after all, can they spend debating over whether the nation is or is not involved in a war with Yugoslavia?)

The attitude is particularly disappointing given the timing. If Congress were to quickly address the expected shortfall in Social Security funds, it could avoid dramatic changes to a system that has been particularly effective at reducing poverty among the elderly. More gradual changes would not only maintain confidence in the system, but also let older workers plan for their retirements. And the current healthy economy would give lawmakers greater flexibility for reform choices. Add all of this to poll results showing the public wants to see action to protect the program, and Congress has a whole house full of open windows of opportunity.

And it has a wide range of proposals to choose among. More than a dozen bills have been submitted to Congress to extend the life of Social Security beyond 2034. A former commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Robert M. Ball, has a plan, and so does Edward Gramlich, the governor of the Federal Reserve Board. The Social Security Advisory Council has presented a reform proposal, and countless interest groups have pushed their own suggestions. It is not too much to ask Congress to examine these ideas, assemble a few major proposals and vote on them.

Without a strong, grassroots demand for reform, however, that now appears unlikely. Instead, candidates could use the problems with Social Security to charge opponents with trying to starve senior citizens or rob the Social Security Trust Fund or some similarly terrible thing.

Every year Congress avoids finding a way to reform the Social Security system, the more radical the eventual repair will have to be. And that’s an issue to raise during the campaign.