Monday, June 27, 2016

Biggs: What Happened In The 2016 Social Security Trustees Report?

Writing over at Forbes, I outlined some of the results of the Social Security Trustees Report and argued that “what’s news isn’t what changed, but what didn’t.”

Specifically, progressives charge that Public Trustee Charles Blahous brought bias to his position, due to his past work as a staffer for President Bush and his current position at a right-leaning think tank. Blahous served one term as a Public Trustees and has been nominated by President Obama for a second term. However, due to progressive opposition his confirmation was delayed.

That means that the 2016 Trustees Report was published without the input of either Blahous or the second public Trustee, Robert Reischauer of the Urban Institute, whose nomination also was delayed.

But guess what? Almost nothing of substance changed. The Report still shows a wide funding gap for the program and no major assumptions leading to that conclusion were changed in Blahous’s absence.

What this tells me is that the Trustees Report doesn’t show a dire financing picture for Social Security because of Blahous’s nefarious influence. It shows a dire financing picture for Social Security because that’s what the program actually faces.

Click here to read the whole article.

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