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I would imagine this would be comforting to those concerned that the Obama administration is eager to slash Social Security. But then, I've been wrong before:
Although reforming health care is the key to our nation’s fiscal future, other programs – including Social Security – do contribute to our long-term deficit. The long-term shortfall in Social Security, though, is modest relative to the possible effect of health care on the budget. As I just mentioned, if costs per enrollee in Medicare and Medicaid, grow at the same rate as they have in the last four decades, the costs associated with these two programs would increase by 15 percentage points of GDP—rising from 5 percent of GDP today to about 20 percent by 2050. By comparison, the cost of Social Security benefits is expected to increase by 1.5 percentage points of GDP over this same period, according to the Social Security actuaries, and the system, without any changes, is expected to be able to pay full benefits through 2041. After we reform health care, the Administration looks forward to working with Congress to strengthen Social Security’s finances.You're never going to get the administration to say that they don't want to "strengthen Social Security's finances." They do. Everyone does. The devil is in the details. But the takeaway here is that the Obama White House does not view it as a high priority.
