Voters Need Answers On Social Security

Published: Oct 12, 2007

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling's name won't come up much during the presidential campaign, but it should. Casey-Kirschling, born on Jan. 1, 1946 at 12:00:01 a.m., is the first baby boomer.

She is taking early retirement, and on Monday will sign up for Social Security benefits, which she can start receiving at age 62. As USA Today noted, right behind her are "80 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964 who could qualify for Social Security and Medicare during the next 22 years."

In presidential debates, candidates of both parties have given mostly weak answers when asked how they would try to keep Social Security sound. In last month's debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, frontrunner Hillary Clinton talked about "fiscal responsibility" when asked about applying the Social Security payroll tax to earned income above the current $97,500 cap. She said wouldn't put anything on the table until she got into negotiations as president.

That's not what Americans need to hear, especially from the party that vilified President Bush's attempt to overhaul Social Security and create private investment accounts. Democrats said the accounts would would drain money from the trust fund.

If Bush's solution was unacceptable, Democrats need to come up one of their own.

Of the Democrats, John Edwards was probably the most honest candidate when he said during a recent debate that "you cannot solve this program by growing the economy ... the honest truth is there are hard choices to be made here."

Hard choices, indeed.

By 2030, Social Security's caseload will be 84 million people, up from 50 million today. The boomer retirements translate into an estimated $50 trillion in future obligations over the next 75 years.

In fairness to the candidates, the president alone can't reform Social Security; Congress has to get on board, as President Bush found out the hard way.

Still, many of the candidates are quick to tell us how important Social Security is to the nation. They owe it to voters to tell us how they would like to make sure it's around for future generations.