News Release

August 14, 2003

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Social Security Ready for a Rocker
Cato scholar says it's time to 'retire' Social Security

WASHINGTON--On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, creating a publicly funded retirement program. Today, 68 years later, Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Choice, comments on the troubled future of the entitlement program:

"As Social Security turns 68 years old, it is time to recognize that a program designed for the 1930s is no longer adequate for the 21st Century. Americans are well aware that Social Security is facing a financial crisis. In just 15 years, Social Security will begin to run a deficit, and, overall, the program faces a shortfall of more than $26 trillion. But Social Security's problems extend well beyond the program's finances.

"Even if the system's finances could somehow be repaired, younger workers would still receive a low, far below market rate-of-return. Moreover, the system has numerous inequities built into it, biases that penalize low-income workers, minorities and working women. Individuals do not own or control their retirement funds and Social Security benefits are not inheritable, meaning that millions of low-income workers are prevented from accumulating and passing on wealth. It is time for the current Social Security system to go gently into retirement, and for Americans to have a new, improved 21st Century retirement program."