Disentangling Social Security From the Debt Ceiling

My Pepperdine colleague Mark Scarberry and Nancy Altman (Co-chair, Strengthen Social Security) have published an important op-ed on The Huffington Post, Disentangling Social Security From the Debt Ceiling:

The op-ed points out that the treasury bonds in the social security trust funds are already part of the debt that is subject to the debt ceiling. Thus, if the Treasury redeemed some of them (cashed them out) and issued more public debt, the ceiling would not be violated. That would give social security the money it might need to pay benefits on time, and the money gotten back from selling more public debt could replace the money used to redeem the bonds. Thus there would be little or no effect on the money available to fund other government obligations. (In effect, this would be a liquidation of some of the bonds in the social security trust funds; it isn't a something-for-nothing or perpetual motion machine scheme.)