Social Security reform has without a doubt become one of the major hot button issues of today’s political climate. Rumors of insolvency and dire predictions of benefits cuts abound.
Everyone has a stance and everyone has an idea when it comes to Social Security reform, but it seems that actually putting any of those ideas into action is becoming increasingly difficult as the ideological debate about the role of so-called “entitlement” programs in our society heats up.
As all politicians must, President Obama has taken a clear stance on Social Security reform. The question is, what exactly is his stance and what does he plan on doing about it? The answers may surprise you.
Barack Obama is all for Social Security reform, and recognizes that the programs need see significant change in order to remain solvent. As Social Security stands now, the program is facing a significant crisis in the relatively near future if nothing is done to fix the budgetary problems. The way that Obama views the Social Security program and how to solve its problems, however, may not settle well with some portions of the American public.
In 2009, Obama stated that he was going to make a “bargain” with the American people to reform Social Security and Medicare. He stated that the government had to get control over its most costly entitlement programs.
What exactly does this mean?
It seems that our President supports cuts to the Social Security program. He's following through on his promises to get control over these “costly” entitlement programs. He also supports raising the retirement age and lowering the rate at which cost of living adjustments are made.
Obama's stance on Social Security? He views it as something that needs to be reformed, which it does. Historically, he has indicated that this should be done through reducing the total amount of benefit payouts and increasing the efficiency of what is widely regarded as a bloated and unnecessarily expensive program.
Many people, however, feel that using such means to preserve the solvency of Social Security’s Disability and Retirement programs would mean that the government is not living up to the promises that Social Security has made over the years, and that instead increasing funding through higher taxes and bigger contributions should be the focus of any Social Security reform.
At this point, the Social Security programs are a well-established section of our government that are relied upon by many citizens as a financial lifeline in the case of the onset of disability or retirement, and it has been demonstrated in no uncertain terms that both politicians and citizens are more than willing to dig in their heels to further their side of the debate about how best to deal with these programs.
Regardless of ideology, however, it is important that some reform be implemented to shore up these programs before the continuation of benefits becomes totally infeasible.
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