To the Editor:
Paul Krugman claims that “Social Security does not face a financial crisis; its long-term funding shortfall could easily be closed with modest increases in revenue.”
The reality is that Social Security faces very serious financial challenges, and its own trustees estimate that its deficits will lead to trust fund insolvency by 2034—resulting in a 21 percent across-the-board cut to all retirees. This will indeed be a crisis to the tens of millions of Americans who rely on the program if we don’t act quickly.
Furthermore, while revenue must be part of the discussion, closing Social Security’s long-term funding shortfall exclusively through tax revenues would require raising the payroll tax by 20 to 35 percent—hardly “modest.”
If we aren’t even willing to acknowledge the magnitude of the challenges facing Social Security, how are we ever going to fix it?
JUDD GREGG
Washington
The writer, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, is co-chairman of the Campaign to Fix the Debt.
