Exactly how progressive are Social Security & Medicare? Less than you think | Opinion
I’ve been pondering a new study that is out this week from Penn’s Wharton Business School. It takes a look at federal spending by the age of the people it benefits. Here’s the broad outline:
- Investment in young people under 26: $449 billion
- Help for working age people 26-64: $1.22 trillion
- Retirement for 65+: $2.71 trillion
As a result of decisions made over the last century and spending that is mostly on autopilot, we’ve become a society that focuses its spending on caring for the old over investing in the young by about 5 to 1.
There are a few facts that help in analyzing this data:
1) The richest age group both by income and by assets is those who are retired (65+).
2) The group that will grow the fastest over the next 50 years is also the retired. As a result, the spending is only going to become more skewed.
3) The group that is the poorest is children, even counting their parents’ income.
4) The Social Security Trust Fund is going to run out within a decade.
We’re going to come to a point where we have to make decisions and the one thing that both parties in Washington say they agree on (Republicans keep making Medicare cuts) is that we can’t cut Social Security or Medicare — that’s the bulk of the spending on retirees.
Even though I will soon be within sight of my own retirement in a decade or so and even though I have been paying into the system through my Social Security taxes since I was 14, 40 years ago, I think this setup is a disaster.
First, it isn’t a good idea to be subsidizing the richest part of society. Second, a health society should invest more in its children if it is going to grow and prosper.
What amuses me is that while it is true that both parties stand in the way of a solution to this problem to some extent, it is the Democrats’ programs like Social Security and Medicare that have created this mess. In fact, if it weren’t for mostly Republican cuts and reforms in the two programs (Obamacare was paid for with Medicare cuts), we’d be in an even worse pickle.
So thanks Democrats — our government is being taken over by spending on the richest Americans leaving behind the poorest. You guys sure are progressive.
David Mastio is a columnist for The Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
