THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412150437
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Jim Remborger was 16 when the Social Security Act passed in 1935.
He was 29 when President Truman declared that military employees like Remborger, then in the Navy, had to pay into the system.
And 65 when he started collecting a monthly check and receiving health care benefits through Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly.
Now, at 75, Remborger bristles when he hears talk about reducing Social Security payments, increasing his Medicare deductibles and premiums, and eliminating Medicare coverage for the wealthy.
``I earned that money. I paid into it,'' the Virginia Beach man says. ``I'm entitled to it.''
Chances are, he'll get it. Wednesday, the federal Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform - which was supposed to release a report on budget deficit and entitlement reform - unexpectedly disbanded rather than tackle this thorny political issue.
Not surprising, one local political expert says. To enact any of the preliminary reforms that the committee had floated - such as increasing the retirement age, Medicare deductibles and premiums, and reducing Medicare eligibility and Social Security benefits - would have been ``political suicide.''
``It's very dangerous to actually take steps in the direction of solving the problem, and the longer we wait to address the solution, the more painful the actual solution is going to be,'' says Virginia Wesleyan College's political science professor Del Carlson. Carlson has been following the commission's work and received a copy of its preliminary report last month.
But changes must come if the Social Security system is to survive, he said.
The problem, Carlson says, is this: In 1983, the government realized that huge numbers of baby boomers would overwhelm the Social Security system when they began retiring in 2010.
To ensure there was enough money to provide this population bulge with benefits, Congress increased Social Security deductions and expanded the pool of workers who had to pay into the system.
But in the early 1980s, as the federal deficit blossomed, the government began borrowing against that money, ``raiding the Social Security system,'' Carlson says.
``So what's going to happen in 2010 or 2020 is they're going to go into the fund and expect to get this money that's been salted away, and they're going to have a bunch of IOUs in there.
``And sometime in the first decade or so of the 21st century, we're going to have a terrible generational confrontation on this.''
Even the Social Security administration's analysts predict the fund will run dry in 2029.
But minor adjustments in the benefit package would provide longer-term stability, Social Security Commissioner Shirley S. Chater said last week.
The generational confrontation has already begun, with today's senior citizens worried that the current focus on Social Security and Medicare will reduce benefits they're already receiving.
``We paid into a system when we were working, and we were promised both a reasonable retirement system and the health benefits that came along with it,'' says Kenneth Gimbert, district director in Virginia Beach for the American Association of Retired Persons.
Wednesday, the AARP, along with other groups in the umbrella National Council of Senior Citizens, blasted the commission even before it disbanded, calling it ``an abject failure whose recommendations would effectively disembowel Social Security and Medicare by reducing the current level of benefits by as much as 50 percent.''
``Right from the beginning it was, `Get grandpa and grandma,' said Larry Smedly, executive director of the council. ``Seniors are willing to do their part, but we're not willing to shoulder 100 percent of the load.''
But ignoring the problem won't make it go away, Carlson says.
``The longer we wait to address the solution, the more painful the solution is going to be. And the politics is that no one wants to touch this issue.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, Staff
Jim Remborger, 75, bristles at talk of reducing benefits for older
people.
Photo by Motoya Nakamura, Staff
Kenneth Gimbert of the AARP says senior citizens were promised a
reasonable retirement system and health benefits.
KEYWORDS: DEFICIT FEDERAL BUDGET RETIREMENT by CNB