Delay is not an option, but it's what we're going to get

Josh Marshall has the right idea in "Stop saving Social Security" in that surplus payroll taxes are enabling runaway spending in the federal government. But his solution of holding off on a tax increase until the Trust Fund is drawn down misses the mark for two reasons:

The Social Security trustees estimate that to bring the program into actuarial balance for the next 75 years, payroll taxes would have to rise 16% right now. Obviously, this is meant to build up a surplus for a "soft landing" as money flies out of the Trust Fund. Waiting until the moment that payments outstrip revenues is inviting either a much larger tax increase or a payroll tax rate that will just get larger every year.

Second, Marshall never entertains the notion that benefits need to be pared back. If you promise the kids you'll take them to the Grand Canyon but then you lose your job, guess what? You're not going to the Grand Canyon. But the U.S. government has overpromised on what it can deliver and there's not a hint that it will tell the American people the truth:

"We'd have to have eight trillion dollars today, invested in treasury rates, to deliver on that promise," [U.S. comptroller general David] Walker explains.

Asked how much we actually have, Walker says, "Zip."

It's going to be so depressing in 2041 when Social Security benefits are (by law) automatically cut by 30% because of inaction today. Josh Marshall says to wait, and that's exactly what Washington wants to hear.