Social Security news: The good, the bad, the ugly and how it can be fixed

With each passing day, it’s ever more certain: Social Security benefits for the elderly will fall — dramatically — by 2032 . . . because Washington is too scared to act.

The mandatory cut is on course to hit 22%: A retiree collecting $40,000 a year will see an $8,800 drop, to $31,200.

Don’t expect Congress to act: This day’s been coming for decades, but all efforts to avert it have fallen prey to rank demagoguery. 

The latest warning sign: News that the latest inflation numbers yield an automatic 3.6% “cost of living” hike in benefits next year, setting the Trust Fund on course to go broke in just six years — and, per existing law, force that 22% wallop.

In theory, Congress could fiddle with COLA formulas, limit benefits for the wealthy, raise the retirement age, etc. — but, really, this crew can’t even get it together to keep regular federal operations reliably funded.

The problem is inherent in Social Security’s “Ponzi scheme” design: For all the talk to the contrary, it basically covers payments to current retirees by taxing current workers, and where the nation once had a dozen or more payers-in to every check-collector, the ratio’s dropping down toward 1.5 to 1.

We just have more people living much longer to collect, and fewer young workers paying taxes to cover the bills.

The last major reform was 43 years ago, and after Democrats tanked President George W. Bush’s plan in 2005, Republicans gave up.

At least that automatic 22% cut will let the system survive, albeit with added hardship for those depending on the monthly payments.

That’s more than can be said for Medicare, Medicaid or Obamacare, with even worse underlying finances — soaring costs that can’t be paid without escalating taxes that only boost the burden on young, working Americans.

Make no mistake: Fixes are possible to all these programs, without major pain: When Republicans ignored Democrats’ doom-mongering and scaled back Obamacare subsidies to (already-generous pre-COVID levels) as of last January, the sky didn’t fall.

Washington’s biggest problem is simply finding the courage to do what’s needed.