Will Immigrants Save Social Security and Medicare from Financial Trouble? - AMAC & The Houston Chronicle
Chris Tomlinson of The Houston Chronicle has an op-ed that details the trouble faced by Medicare and Social Security. He notes Congress has avoided the necessary fixes for decades to instead focus on reelection. The choices include increasing taxes, reducing benefits, or implementing a combination of both. But gridlocked Congresses have shown little ability to compromise on anything.
Finance and public policy experts have drafted dozens of thick reports on how to fix these programs with every plan relying on premiums collected from future generations. “Younger Americans typically finance the Social Security and Medicare payouts of current retirees. But the next generation happens to attend the schools we underfund, live in neighborhoods we neglect and come from families whose status in this country is questioned by too many Americans” says Tomlinson.
The author notes how the U.S. population would have started shrinking in the mid-1970s if not for young immigrants raising their families here. New Census data shows the children of these immigrants are who will pay for future Social Security and Medicare benefits. Full piece here.