What's Social Security's Status?

President Obama came out today and said that Social Security is not a major contributor to the deficit. He said:

You talked about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The truth is Social Security is not the huge contributor to the deficit that the other two entitlements are.

I'm confident we can get Social Security done in the same way that Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were able to get it done, by parties coming together, making some modest adjustments. I think we can avoid slashing benefits, and I think we can make it stable and stronger for not only this generation but for the next generation.

This of course, wasn't good enough to some on the left:

But Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee emails a far more pessimistic interpretation:

President Obama said Social Security is not a "huge contributor" to the deficit. In fact, Social Security has a $2.5 trillion surplus, is not even part of the general budget, and therefore does not contribute one penny to the deficit...

Cuts, tweaks, or slashes to Social Security are the exact same thing -- a broken promise to American workers who paid for and earned Social Security benefits.

Apparently, any discussion of Social Security isn't going to work for them. Social Security is in fine shape, and will be for most of this decade. There does come a point at which the increasing ranks of recipients, and rising COLA's, begin to not only pay out more than they take in, but they also diminish that surplus to nothing. Some say, so what? Let it run red ink. Some say, so what, after all, they can pay 80% of current benefits as far out as we can run the math. Some say, slash the program to hell, we shouldn't have it. I think they're all nuts. I also think it's great that the President defended the program like he did, that's not normal. I'm heartened by it.

Let's throw out stupid solutions like Means-Testing. It won't really work. The real solutions lie in tweaks, not broad strokes. Eliminate or raise the "cap" on payroll taxes for the program and curb the COLA's for the start. Social Security is a strong program, and must continue to insure pay-outs to everyone who pays in. It can continue to do that for a long time, if it is handled right.