Apparently the President’s proposal is to significantly reduce the COLAs for Social Security over time. The problem being:
The Social Security Administration calculates that the system will deplete its reserve of Treasury bonds by 2041, after which it will be able to pay out in benefits only what it receives in taxes. But even then, benefits would be almost three-quarters what is currently promised, and considerably higher in inflation-adjusted terms than they are now. If nothing is done to Social Security, the system will be able to meet the president’s promise to ensure that all seniors receive a benefit larger than current levels.
He’s apparently going to make the system worse.
But remember that the trust fund is not a real obligation and the bonds in there can just be ignored? That would appear to be a rather bad idea from which to then move to this position:
Despite opposition from Democrats and a lukewarm response from the public, he intensified his push for private accounts financed by a portion of a worker’s payroll taxes. To pacify those worried about the risk associated with investment, the president, for the first time, said one of the investment options should be no-risk Treasury bonds.
I believe we now know where CMS learned it’s accounting practices.