, Columnists
Getting Creative With Social Security for Parents
Entitlements have to change. But a lot depends on whether you trust or distrust future politicians.
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Photographer: Time Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCould Social Security be used to pay for a national family-leave program, at no cost to the taxpayer? Bloomberg View columnists Ramesh Ponnuru and Michael R. Strain discussed the idea in two recent columns, and reached different conclusions.
Ponnuru said the proposal qualified as a real reform, since employees who took family leave would be agreeing to delay the start of their Social Security checks to make up the difference in cost. Strain replied that it was a bad precedent to make future claims on Social Security, even if the costs were pitched as revenue-neutral. We asked them to discuss what their contrasting views say about the future of American entitlements.