Causes fiscal crisis---accelerates depleting the Trust Fund
Beebe ’18 [Joyce; July 26; Ph.D., is a fellow in public finance at the Baker Institute, her research focuses on tax reforms in the U.S., was an international tax director at Grant Thornton LLP and an economist at Deloitte Tax LLP, B.A. in public finance (valedictorian) from National Chengchi University in Taiwan, a diploma from the Stockholm School of Economics and a Ph.D. in economics from Rice University; Houston Chronicle, “Don’t use Social Security to pay for parental leave,” https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Don-t-use-Social-Security-to-pay-for-parental-13108939.php]
The idea of a budget-neutral paid leave program is appealing. However, there is one big problem: Social Security is already financially distressed. The most recent trustees report shows that the program will start dipping into the trust fund in 2018 , meaning Social Security will take in less cash than it will pay out as benefits, thereby depleting the reserves. Unless Congress takes action to strengthen the program’s finances, the trust fund will run out in 2034, 16 years from now . Given Social Security’s dire financial outlook, why should we impose the paid leave benefit onto a plan that is only financially viable for 16 years, knowing that some kind of reduction in Social Security benefits would be inevitable? In addition, although early parental leave collection would be optional, young working families with retirement ages that occur after 2034, when the Social Security trust fund runs out, would have strong financial incentives to collect early, regardless of need. This scenario would further exacerbate the fund’s precarious financial position.