I’m a little late in getting to this issue. But as the old adage goes—better late than never. This column is going to be about the annual report of the Social Security Board of Trustees concerning the financial health of the program. (More about this board at the end of the column.) The trustees’ report came out a couple of weeks ago and made news for a day or two. I think the ho-hum reaction from the public to this report is partly because, as has been the case for many years now, the report says the Social Security trust funds are like a ticking doomsday clock. And the trustees have always urged action by the president and Congress to do something before the clock strikes midnight. And then nothing gets done! So, the public goes “ho hum!” I'll have some comments about how easy it would be to shore up Social Security financing at the end of this column.
To write this column, I started to paraphrase the press report issued by the Social Security Administration. But then I thought: they wrote it to be read by the public. So here it is—word for word from the SSA’s press office.
