Womack talks Social Security tough choices

Social Security has been called the “third rail” of American politics in reference to the electrified rail in a subway system: Touch it, and you die. In a recent interview with Talk Business & Politics, U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., at least talked about touching it.

Womack was asked by host Roby Brock about a recent congressional hearing where Womack had asked a Trump administration official about when it would present an executive budget that included mandatory spending.

That’s the two-thirds of the budget composed mostly of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and upon which Congress does not typically cast votes. Those programs are mostly on autopilot. All the fussing is about the remaining one-third, which is known as discretionary spending. It includes the military, federal highways, national parks and almost everything else. Wo m a c k said he was told the administration recognizes the need to address mandatory spending. For now, it is focusing on President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That’s the tax cut bill making its way through Congress that does include cuts to Medicaid.

Womack said he was OK with that response for now because he recognizes the difficulties of addressing mandatory spending. That is particularly the case with Social Security and Medicare. Those are popular programs. Americans pay into the system all their working lives and expect to receive their benefits.

He noted Social Security was designed in the 1930s and Medicare in the 1960s, when life expectancies were shorter. Proceeds from payroll taxes were never saved but instead were used to pay for current recipients’ benefits. He described it as “kind of a flawed actuary, if you want to get right down to it.”

Social Security now collects less in taxes than it pays out. It has been cashing in the IOUs the rest of the government owes it for borrowing from the surpluses it used to have. The system will exhaust those IOUs by 2033.

This is all happening as the federal government remains $36.2 trillion in debt, is spending $2 trillion a year more than it collects, and spends $1 trillion in interest payments. With so much red ink, lawmakers can’t balance the budget without addressing mandatory spending, Womack said.

He said a lot of people depend on Social Security and Medicare, and they must be sustainable. Lawmakers should address waste, fraud and abuse, but there’s not enough to make the numbers work.

“Maybe the age of eligibility threshold has to go higher,” he said. “Maybe FICA taxes have to go higher. Maybe you have to means test some of these programs. All I’m suggesting to you is that it’s going to get buried under its own weight if you don’t do something. And at the stage we’re at right now at $37 trillion in debt and a $2 trillion hole in our budget, you’re not going to be able to do this by just dinking around with the discretionary budget of the U.S. government, which is what we’re precisely doing right now.”

To even mention those solutions — raising the retirement age, increasing Social Security and Medicare taxes, and means-testing benefits so that richer Americans get less — is not something politicians often do.

Womack was speaking candidly, which is good. Part of a congressman’s job is to educate constituents about political realities.

At the same time, Womack, along with the rest of Arkansas’ House delegation, voted to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act mentioned earlier in this column. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates it would add $3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

It would do this by extending the 2017 tax cuts 10 years and cutting other taxes while cutting not enough spending. Furthermore, the bill uses some accounting gimmicks that mask its probable effects. The tax cuts come immediately, and some are set to expire, which Congress probably wouldn’t let happen. At the same time, much of the spending cuts would come later, which gives Congress time to reverse them.

Asked by Brock about that vote, Womack said the bill wasn’t perfect. But, he said, “Look, I’m going to support this bill because the last thing I want to do is impose a major tax increase … on the people I represent.”

He did say he would wait until he sees the Senate version before pledging his final support.

If recent history is any guide, don’t bet on that version reducing the deficit. Lawmakers aren’t touching third rails. They’re not even inching up to the ledge.

••• Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 19 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@ mac.com.