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The idea that Social Security benefits will be slashed the minute the trust fund goes dry is rank nonsense. It would take less than a day to pass legislation to use general revenues to maintain SS benefits. nytimes.com/2019/06/12/bus…
The Social Security trust fund is economically meaningless. It's simply budget authority allowing general revenues to pay benefits. We could costlessly add a billion trillion dollars to the trust fund to keep it going forever. Just create money out of thin air. This isn't MMT.
All the hand-wringing among the chattering class is rank bullshit, attempts to create a bandwagon for slashing benefits now to pay for more Republican tax cuts.
There may be reasons to reform Social Security, but there should absolutely be no general reduction in benefits until the 2017 tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy has been fully reversed in aggregate terms. Even then, the payroll tax should be raised before benefits are cut.
I think the most likely form of a cut in Social Security benefits will be monkeying around with the cost-of-living adjustment. Next most likely is a cut in future benefits for young workers creating a two-tier system.
