Duncan Black

President Obama did not include a cut to future Social Security benefits in his proposed budget.

Significant numbers of people who are nearing retirement do not have sufficient savings.

Social Security benefits should be increased to ensure a comfortable retirement income for Americans.

Liberals had reason to cheer last week, as President Obama did not include a cut to future Social Security benefits in his proposed budget. This cut, which would have involved changing the formula for calculating annual cost of living increases for retirees and other beneficiaries, had been included in the last budget. If liberals have their way, the next budget will instead include proposed increases to these retirement benefits.

The president and his advisers have long said that such cuts would only be agreed to as a part of a compromise with Republicans, a "grand bargain" in which retirement cuts would be exchanged for tax revenue increases. The idea is that Democrats would give Republicans something they want (retirement benefit cuts) in exchange for something that Democrats want (tax revenue increases).

But the truth is that Republicans aren't all that interested in retirement benefit cuts, and they're certainly not interested in taking responsibility for them. Social Security is a very popular program and it's an extremely popular program among senior citizens who are more likely to be Republican voters. Republicans might want to cut the benefits, but only if they can blame Democrats for the cuts.

Those of us who disliked the contours of this particular bargain can be pleased that it was never all that likely to actually be agreed to, but the proposal still focused much of the discussion in Washington on a very bad idea. Reducing Social Security benefits isn't just bad politics, it's also bad policy. We should not be cutting retirement benefits, we should be increasing them.

Significant numbers of people who are nearing retirement do not have anything close to sufficient savings and pensions to be able to retire comfortably. This is due to the decline in defined benefit retirement programs, the failure of the 401(k) system of tax subsidized employer and individual contributions to encourage enough wealth accumulation, and the impact of the Great Recession on the financial health of many American households.

There is a looming retirement crisis, and this is a problem that our government should be focused on solving. There is broad, if not universal, agreement that the rules and framework of our rich economy should be such that people can expect to retire at some point with income security. The system that was supposed to provide for that -- modest Social Security income combined with tax subsidized savings -- is not working.

If they can leave behind the mad pursuit for bipartisan compromises that have been the obsession of Washington insiders over the past couple of years, perhaps lawmakers can start focusing on the real needs of citizens and voters. Many people can't imagine that they'll ever be able to retire, but it's unreasonable to expect that people can work forever, especially those who have worked for years in physically demanding jobs. The full retirement age is already scheduled, under current law, to increase to 67, and it's difficult to imagine many people being able to work much longer than that, whether or not they need the income.

There are various ways we could pay for increased benefits. One way would be to reduce or eliminate the tax deductability of 401(k) plans, which costs the government somewhere between $100 and $250 billion annually and primarily benefits higher income individuals. Another would be to raise or remove the cap on the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax, which is currently only levied on the first $117,000 of wage income.

Social Security benefits should be increased in order to ensure a comfortable if modest retirement income for the vast majority of Americans. No one past working age should live in fear of losing their homes or being unable to pay their heating bills. Smart politicians should recognize the crisis that is ahead and solve it in the simplest fashion. Increasing retirement benefits would be both good policy and good politics.

Duncan Black writes the blogEschatonunder the pseudonym of Atrios and is a fellow at Media Matters for America.

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