[Baltimore Sun] Make candidates explain how to put the ‘secure’ in Social Security | STAFF COMMENTARY
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It’s been a big week in presidential politics. With Joe Biden and Donald Trump having secured their respective party’s nominations, it would seem the ideal moment to start getting serious about the myriad issues facing the nation and the planet. Naturally, it didn’t work out that way.
Instead, Americans were given ample opportunities to ponder how former special counsel Robert Hur’s choice not to bring charges against the sitting president for mishandling classified documents wasn’t an exoneration exactly. There also was the intense public examination as to which presidential candidate had more trouble with memory. Was President Biden’s struggle to recall the year his son Beau died during his deposition with Hur any worse than Trump mistaking a photo of a woman suing him for sexual assault as his ex-wife during a deposition?
“Gotcha” attacks are pretty standard stuff in U.S. politics, of course, but they can be dispiriting when the sideshow grabs all the attention from the substance, as so often happens in the modern social media-dominated age. Still, there was one embarrassing moment in the past week that actually deserved greater fanfare.
On Monday, during a phone interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Trump was asked about whether he might have changed his outlook on entitlements. The point was relevant as the Republican had famously flirted with the idea of cutting Social Security during his re-election bid in 2020. His response? He essentially said that he was open to trimming benefits, including those of Medicare and Medicaid as there is “a lot” you can do “in terms of cutting and also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.”
The statement was quickly disavowed by both Trump and the campaign. And, of course, the Democrats and Biden pounced. “If anyone tries to cut Social Security or Medicare, or raise the retirement age again, I will stop them,” Biden told supporters that same day during a campaign appearance in New Hampshire.
What’s important here isn’t that Biden was boosted or Trump looked bad, it’s that a serious issue was treated with zero gravitas. What exactly are your plans for Social Security, Messrs. Trump and Biden? Simply saying you plan to protect entitlements isn’t enough, not when the Social Security Trust Fund is set to be exhausted by 2033, according to the most recent Congressional Budget Office estimate.
Nine years may seem like a long time, but it really isn’t. Potential fixes like delaying retirement age, raising payroll taxes or reducing benefits (which is what beneficiaries will face if nothing is done) are broadly unpopular. And the financial impact, especially on lower-income seniors, could be devastating. Do nothing and see a 23% across-the-board cut in retirement benefits? Small wonder that polls show older Americans are fearful of that possibility. Congress can’t even pass a budget. They haven’t been calling Social Security the “third rail” of American politics for the last four decades for nothing.
What’s needed now is for the candidates to simply be held accountable. Instead of frittering away our time chasing the next gotcha, why don’t we hold them to task? Ask the candidates how they plan to fix Social Security. Drill down into details. This would seem a fine time for Martin O’Malley — Maryland’s former governor, Baltimore’s former mayor and the current Social Security Administration aommissioner — to educate voters on the harsh realities. Journalists have an important role here, but so do voters, viewers, listeners and posters. We need to stop cheering for our “team” and start questioning the nitty-gritty of policy, which can be dull but has enormous consequences. Social Security (and Medicare and Medicaid, too) would be a fine place to start getting serious.
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.
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