The Inevitable Impossibility: Nearly every American sees the letters FICA at least once a week. While rushing out of the office or place of employment and scurrying to the bank to cash a well-deserved paycheck, the average American scowls at the roughly 8% the “FICA tax” inevitably consumes. Yet, ask any American what they plan to use to enjoy life after they retire and the answer is generally uniform: “my social security checks”. This answer has been repeated for over sixty-five years. Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Americans have been receiving returned taxes for their retirement through a public policy known as the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), or better known as Social Security. Noted as one of the most successful government policy decisions in the United States’ brief history, Social Security has kept millions of Americans out of poverty and acted as fiscal life support for many others. Unfortunately, due to an explosion of population fifty years ago and a current population growth comparatively stagnant, Social Security is approaching a deep financial crisis. Current estimates foresee negative growth within the next fifteen years and complete bankruptcy for the program in roughly thirty years. The financial crisis has created tension among current and future Social Security recipients as well as the nation’s legislators. However, despite an obvious need for decisive action and reform, the issue has barely surfaced in the recent pages of the Congressional Record. Why has nothing happened and when will something happen? The following report will answer these two questions and envelop a series of others. Relying on past critical assessment of wide-ranging policy reform, the following will reflect on why Social Security legislation has been relatively ignored. The report will also examine the changes in the Social Security legislation an...
