Let’s Remember to Celebrate the Accomplishments of Social Security

Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice President Biden and a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, reminds us that is easy — perhaps a bit too easy — to blame the federal government for problems.  In a piece for the Washington Post, Bernstein points to several successes wrought by Social Security, a program that celebrated its 79th “birthday” on August 14, 2014, including:

• Social Security lifts the incomes of 58 million Americans, and for most of its elderly beneficiaries it’s the single most important income source, accounting for two-thirds of their income on average.

• For more than one-third of retirees on the program, Social Security accounts for at least 90 percent of their income.

• [Figures show] that were it not for Social Security benefits, over 44 percent of the elderly would be poor. With it, that share falls to 9 percent. What’s that again about government programs failing to reduce poverty?

The impact of monthly Social Security benefits on impoverished older persons is demonstrated by this chart from Kathy Ruffing, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: