At yesterday’s release of the GOP’s “Pledge to America,” one of the first questions from the audience was: what about Social Security reform? It’s a huge issue (one-fifth of the federal budget, unfunded liabilities in the trillions, and not sustainable by a long shot), yet, interestingly, one that was mentioned only in passing. The document merely states that the GOP will require “a full accounting of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, setting benchmarks for these programs and reviewing them regularly, and preventing the expansion of unfunded liabilities.”
Looking to our European neighbors, it’s not hard to understand why the issue was overlooked (it is called the “third rail” of politics for a reason, after all.) Seven unions in France held a strike on Thursday against the government’s proposals to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018, and the age to receive full benefits from 65 to 67. The French system – just like pension systems the world over, including here in the U.S. – faces a demographic time bomb, yet any attempts to defuse it have been met with indignation and civil unrest.
