Pam Gulleson: “Social Security Isn’t Broken”

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 14, 2012
11:33pm

In a post on her website celebrating the birthday of the Social Security program 77 years ago, liberal North Dakota House candidate Pam Gulleson declares that the entitlement behemoth “isn’t broken.”

“My opponent wants to raise the age for Social Security recipients, privatize Social Security and has called Social Security a ‘broken system,’” wrote Gulleson. “Social Security is not a broken system; it’s working very well for North Dakota seniors.”

Social Security checks aren’t bouncing yet, to be sure, but Social Security is most certainly broken. In 2011, when Republicans and Democrats in Washington DC were fighting over a debt deal that, had it not been reached, would have restricted the government’s ability to continue borrowing money to finance deficit spending. During that debate, President Barack Obama and other Democrats argued that Social Security checks might not go out if the government couldn’t continue to borrow.

Why would the President say that? Because the Social Security program is in deficit, obligated to pay more out in benefits annually than it collects in revenues, and the trust fund is full of nothing but IOU’s from the federal government which long ago spent that money. But you don’t have to take my word for it. None other than Minnesota Senator Al Franken said as much during a 2011 speech on the floor of the Senate:

According to the 2012 report from the Social Security trustees posted on the SSA’s website, the program’s deficit was $45 billion in 2011 and was expected to average around $66 billion annually between 2012 and 2018 “before rising steeply.” According to the report, the trustees expect “expenditures will remain greater than non-interest income throughout the 75-year projection period.”

But Pam Gulleson says the program isn’t broken. Because that’s what she thinks voters want to hear. Rather than being a leader, and talking about real problems like grownups, Gulleson wants to obfuscate and fear monger. We don’t need any more of that nonsense in Washington.