Danger ahead for Social Security

By Rap Lewis

A battle to protect Social Security for present and future generations is under way in Congress, with danger signals flashing red.

In a March 18 letter to President Obama, 64 senators – 32 Democrats and 32 Republicans – called for discussions on government spending, including “entitlement reform.” They urged the President to “engage in a broader discussion about a comprehensive deficit-reduction package.”

The talks should cover “discretionary spending cuts, entitlement changes and tax reform,” the letter said. It endorsed the report issued by Obama’s fiscal commission as a starting point for the discussion.

The letter follows a House Republican proposal for a crippling $1.7 billion slash in the funds the Social Security Administration (SSA) needs to run the agency efficiently through the remaining months of 2011.

A budget cut of $1.7 billion could compel the agency to close its doors for a full month, creating a backlog of 400,000 unprocessed retirement and survivor claims.

In addition, about 290,000 initial disability benefit applications would not be processed, materially worsening the already serious disability claims backlog.

One hundred and fifteen House members – including 7th District Rep. Jim McDermott – have signed a letter to Speaker John Boehner urging him to protect the SSA’s full administrative budget.

“Social Security didn’t cause the current deficits and the services provided by the SSA are indispensable,” the signers told Boehner.

In White House discussions, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others on President Obama’s economic team have been urging Obama to be open to benefit reductions and to a further rise in the age of full retirement to 68 or 69. Obama’s political advisors, on the other hand, are warning that endorsing any cuts in Social Security would be disastrous to the President’s 2012 election hopes.

Further highlighting the perilous situation, a bipartisan team in the Senate is drafting a broad deficit-reduction package that is likely to include Social Security “reform” – that is, cuts in benefits or a further raise in the age of full retirement.

Senator Tom Coburn (R, Okla.), Senate Budget Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois are using the report of the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission as a starting point in seeking agreement on a deficit reduction passage. Another bad sign.

The negative signals from Congress underline the urgency of the Social Security Works coalition generating the strongest possible defense of this most basic social insurance program. The deficit hawks are hovering, claws extended.