Failing to Reform Social Security Means Mandatory Cuts

When President Joe Biden sparred with Republicans during his State of the Union address in February, he vowed to veto any attempt at cutting Social Security benefits. Yet the budget proposal he unveiled in March lacked a plan to avert the mandatory Social Security benefit cuts that are quickly approaching.

Social Security will become insolvent in the early 2030s without policy changes, but no one in Washington wants to make those changes. Do nothing, and benefits will need to be cut by about 20 percent across the board within a decade or so, according to estimates by the Social Security Administration’s trustees.

If your ship is taking on water, you can try bailing it out, which in this case means changing the program’s parameters to better balance revenue and spending. Or you can board the lifeboats, which in this case means finding an alternative way to help Americans plan for retirement before the current system sinks. Biden’s budget doesn’t give Americans a bucket or an oar.

The president’s $6.8 trillion proposal includes billions of dollars in new spending and higher taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. While one of those