Writing for the Washington Post, Henry Aaron highlights a report recently released by the Social Security Administration which contains a comprehensive menu of actions that Congress can take to shore up the program’s finances and change benefits:

If you think that the best way to fix Social Security’s long-run financial shortfall is to cut benefits, the agency’s report shows ways Congress could do that. If you think that the way to close the long-term funding gap is to raise taxes while maintaining benefits, you will find a couple of dozen ways to do that, too. If you think that Social Security should give benefit credits to those who stay home to care for children, the elderly or people with disabilities, or that the very old should receive additional benefits because they suffer from higher poverty rates than the not-so-old, this is the place to go for a menu of ways to do those things and make a lot of other changes that you might not have thought of.

You’ll learn what those measures cost or save. You’ll be able to read brief and understandable explanations of each of them. The options come with color charts that show graphically how each change would affect Social Security’s finances. And, if you can’t tell the program without the players, you’ll be able to see which member of Congress or organization proposed them.

This is must-read material for anyone paying attention to the Democratic candidate debates now — or later, to the debates between the Republican and Democratic nominees. Understanding what the candidates propose to do about the nation’s No. 1 domestic program could help you decide which candidate you support.

Full column: Washington Post »