OPINION:
President Biden’s State of the Union speech touched on the need to protect Social Security, which some critics say will be unable to meet its obligations in another dozen years or so.
Questions surrounding the financial stability of Social Security are decades old, as it has never been able to sustain itself. However, no one should lose sleep worrying whether those monthly checks will continue to arrive.
Since 1937, Social Security has stayed afloat by tweaking its statistical model. It raised the retirement age, the FICA tax rate from 1% to the 6.20% and the ceiling on which earnings are taxed. Its future solvency, besides adjusting these three numbers, might involve a tax on incomes above a certain level or elimination of benefits for those whose incomes don’t require a government check. Whatever method lawmakers choose, Social Security, through number tweaking, will always remain solvent.
PAUL L. NEWMAN
Merion Station, Pennsylvania
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