Sen. Harry Reid has a novel idea for "fixing" Social Security, the hobbyhorse du jour of The Village. Don't do anything until we have to, 20 years from now. He presented this radical idea last night on "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emphatically rejected changes to Social Security that would improve the entitlement program's solvency, jesting that he'd be willing to revisit the program's structure in two decades, once it's projected to become insolvent.
"Two decades from now, I'm willing to take a look at it," said Reid, 71, in an interview to air Wednesday evening on MSNBC. "But I'm not willing to take a look at it right now...."
"So what I've said, if we want to look at something to take care of the out years, let's do it at the right time," he said. "It is not in crisis at this stage. Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that is in crisis. But Social Security is not."
Of course, for The Hill, he must be jesting, since The Hill seems to be under the impression that "reform" must happen with this Congress, lamenting that "Reid's remarks may well signal a death knell for hopes that lawmakers might be able to accomplish Social Security reform this Congress." Here are those remarks in full, and he's not jesting.
Here's the most relevant part, though the entire snippet is worth the watch.
REID: I have said clearly and as many times as I can, leave Social Security alone. Social Security does not add a single penny, not a dime, a nickel, a dollar to the budget problems we have. Never has and for the next 30 years it won’t do that.
So what I’ve said, if you want to look at something to take care of the out years, let’s do it at the right time. It is not in a crisis at this stage. Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that are in crisis. Social Security is not. I repeat, for the next approximately 30 years people will draw 100% of their benefits.
And if we do nothing after that, they’ll draw 80% of their benefits. Now I want to make sure that in the out years, 30 years from now, we draw 100% of benefits. That’s important. I believe in Social Security. I think it’s the most successful social program in the history of the world. But I am not going to balance the budget on the backs of senior citizens who have paid into the fund and deserve their money.
There's a bit of the interview that's already been made out-of-date. Reid says that he wouldn't support Sen. Bernie Sanders' legislation that would require a two-thirds majority of the Senate to pass any legislation reducing Social Security benefits, including raising the retirement age. He said, "I have enough trouble over here with what the Republicans have done to me the last few congresses with the filibuster. That's 60. I don't need now to start worrying about 67. Let's change the subject, as much as I like Bernie, I will not support his legislation. At this stage in the development of this country, I will not support tinkering with social security. It is not an emergency."
Sen. Sanders announced today, via e-mail, the revised Sanders-Reid Social Security Amendment, which "expresses the Sense of the Senate that Social Security benefits for current and future Social Security beneficiaries should not be cut and Social Security should not be privatized as part of any legislation to reduce the deficit." A sense of the Senate resolution is not binding, but it's a good political marker for putting the Senate on the record on protecting Social Security. The resolution could be voted on as early as the week of March 28.