As a libertarian, I generally warn people against dependence upon big government because politicians are elected based upon their ability to promise more than they can deliver. So, no one can be completely shocked when the public programs created by Congress fail you as an individual.

Social Security provides an excellent example of big government failing the public as a whole. For every $1 the program has ever collected, it has generated $3 of promises that it does not expect to keep. Voters, I hope, understand that robbing Peter to pay Paul cannot last forever.

By all accounts, the public embraces the idea of Social Security. That is fine, provided that voters realize that they have a responsibility to monitor the programs that they create through their votes, and they accept the consequences of allowing a government program to spin out of control.

Social Security has spun out of control. Over the past decade alone, the program has generated more than $10 trillion in promises that it has no material prospect of keeping. Over this period of time, the gap between what the program promises and what the program will likely be able to pay has grown at more than double the rate of growth of the national economy as a whole. Basically, the hole in the program’s finances is growing faster than our ability to fill it.

All the while, Congress has talked about the problem without doing anything to address the long-term prospects of the program.

This subject should be on the radar of every candidate running for national office. However, it appears to be on the priority list of none. At this point, the politics of Social Security are simple. Promise the voter that you will protect Social Security, and the voter will hear whatever he or she wishes. Any voter who takes that promise to heart at the ballot box deserves whatever consequences when the checks are supposed to arrive.

Yes, the voters are at fault, and there will be consequences for their electoral indifference. Americans have a vote every two years, and the last time we reformed Social Security was in 1983. At this point, you can’t blame the program’s architect, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for the perilous state of the program. In fact, FDR opposed the pay-as-you-go system that we have in place today. 

In terms of Social Security, the public is broadly not paying attention, and there will be consequences. For example, there are people who believe that the money was stolen and spent on other things. The only variation of the story is who stole the money, which varies by party. In other words, the other guy did it!

Your money wasn’t stolen, and debunking that notion requires about five minutes and access to the Social Security Administration’s website. Since its inception, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund has received roughly $20.7 trillion. To date, Social Security has distributed approximately $21.1 trillion to eligible beneficiaries. Every penny that has been contributed to the program has already been spent.

Since inception, Congress has added nearly $1 trillion in general fund subsidies. Congress hasn’t stolen anything. Rather, Congress is subsidizing the program from its slush fund.

This is absurd, not to mention totally unsustainable. And yet there is a sub-cult of American voters who buy into the myth that Social Security will be there for them, in full, when they need it. The reasoning appears to be: My money was stolen by the people I elected, so my kids need to pay me back. Believe it or not, that life strategy is apt to fail you at the worst possible time.

Congress creates these myths in large part to deflect attention from the true culprit: themselves. Since 1983, the passage of time is responsible for 2/3rds of the program’s shortfall that we face today. Time is the greatest threat to Social Security. Yet, we are constantly gaslit on this issue as our elected officials routinely run on the claim that we have time to deal with the program’s finances.

Blind faith is a problem. When politicians tell you that we have wealth in pots of gold at the end of the rainbow and the solution is to hire more leprechauns, you need to realize that there will be consequences.  Each and every voter needs to accept the responsibility for his or her vote.

You can’t blame the lie of the politician when the problem is your willingness to believe it.

Brenton Smith ([email protected]) is a policy advisor with The Heartland Institute.