Words.
"...In all the sound and fury over Social Security over the last few weeks, the Texas governor has never actually spelled out how he would fix the program. Nor have most of the other candidates who trumpet their purported courage in saying that Social Security is in trouble.
That's what's been wrong with the noisy GOP "debate" on our national pension plan. It's been all chest-thumping and Ponzi-scheming — lots of attitude but little substance. It's provided little clarity for voters who want to know what these potential presidents would do if elected.
Not that President Obama has done much better; he's tiptoed around endorsing specific proposals too.
If Social Security is no longer the third rail of American politics (meaning "fatal to anyone who touches it"), somebody forgot to tell our leading politicians.
...The hard part, for politicians, is telling voters what painful steps they back, which means spelling out who would pay what share of the cost.
...Last year, the co-chairmen of Obama's own deficit-reduction commission, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, proposed a plan with options from both sides of the menu: increase payroll taxes, raise the retirement age, reduce future benefits for high-income earners and trim cost-of-living increases for current recipients.
...If we fix Social Security between now and 2036, the solution is likely to look something like what Simpson and Bowles proposed — after suitable wrangling over how big each component should be.
Meanwhile, let's have a truce on calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme, promising voters that benefits will never be cut, or claiming that it takes courage to talk about the subject at all.
Most Americans already agree that Social Security needs to be fixed. The courage will come in showing them how."
LOS ANGELES TIMES: McManus: Touching the 'third rail'
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