“Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the General Fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security Trust Fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or erasing or lowering the deficit.” — President Ronald Reagan 7 October 1984
Washington teeters on the brink of a Cold War over Social Security By BURGESS EVERETT
Amending entitlements is a tall order for a Congress that disagrees on nearly everything. Lawmakers are still wading into the mess, hoping to recreate a famed bipartisan deal that shored up the programs four decades ago.
ongress, whose members struggle to accomplish simple tasks like funding the government and raising the debt ceiling, is suddenly talking about changes to Medicare and Social Security.
There’s plenty of reasons to be skeptical that any of that big talk will pay off.
Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, for one, has a unique seat at the table as a bipartisan group of his fellow senators meet quietly about potential solutions to shore up Social Security’s long-term fiscal health. Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden who’s sat in on meetings of the bipartisan Social Security gang, openly admits that changing the popular entitlement “is one of the most difficult things for Congress to do.”
For What It's Worth 