UNEXCITING SOCIAL SECURITY

Though much of the media and too many members of Congress have decided that a crisis in Social Security they made so much of a year or more ago no longer matters, problems with the system persist because there was no agreement on a solution. The problems are not crises and do not require dismantling a system that has worked very well for decades, but they do require more effort than merely yelling about a coming doom.

Social Security, Americans have been informed endlessly, is going broke. In 25 or 30 years a combination of longer lives and Baby Boom retirements will strain the system so that it can no longer produce the promised monthly payments to seniors. Possible solutions – increasing collections, decreasing inflation adjustments, raising the retirement age, a combination of the three – all the incremental adjustments that might be tried before doing anything dramatic, were set aside because they were boring. A dramatic solution, privatizing a portion of the system, was debated without end.

The boring solutions make no one particularly happy because everyone hopes the system can be repaired without their own sacrifice. According to testimony before a House subcommittee last week, the Social Security Administration could make changes that, while really boring, would turn the system into a more efficient, less wasteful operation.

Barbara Bovbjerg and David L. McClure of the General Accounting Office testified before a Ways and Means subcommittee that SSA needs to improve its disability claims process so that decisions are made more quickly and it should emphasize return-to-work strategies that would further save money. It should simplify its program requirements under Supplemental Security Income (SSI) because the current system too often results in overpayments. And it should lay out a plan on how it will deliver services in the coming decades. The lack of a plan now means the administration cannot provide assurances that it is using its resources efficiently.

There are other recommendations dealing with technology and increased research, but one message from the GAO testimony is that Congress could avoid pointless arguments over privatization and postpone asking anyone for sacrifice until the system produces savings and extends its own life. If Social Security were known for its efficiency, calls for help from taxpayers would be a lot easier to make. The internal changes might not produce front-page news but ultimately could be important to the next generation of seniors who hoped to live somewhere besides in poverty.