UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A
Thursday, December 8,1994
ABOVE: Rain coated many trees on campus Tuesday due to freezing temperatures. By yesterday, the wet branches were encased in ice. According to the KU Weather Service, there is a 20 percent chance of light snow today, but it will be a little warmer Friday, with a high of 40 degrees.
RIGHT: Jeff Pritchard, Thousand Oaks, Calif., sophomore,
walks on campus under trees lined with ice.
Photos by Paul Kotz
Social Security prepares for baby boomers
Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series examining the problems facing Social Security and how they will affect college students.
Kansan staff writer
If Social Security were a private company, its profit margin would put Fortune 500 companies to shame.
Because of tax hikes legislated in the 1980s, the system runs surpluses of billions of dollars a year.
But a surge in the number of retirees looms on the horizon. By 2029, the well will run dry.
Nobody disagrees with this. But start talking about ways to forestall the impending disaster, and the cat fights begin.
Take the suggestion that Social Security benefits be means tested, or reduced for retirees who have other kinds of income, such as pensions and mutual funds.
"That's the one thing we adamantly oppose," said David Certner, a lobbyist for the American Association of Retired Persons. "It's off the table."
The problem with means testing, Certner said, was that it would undermine public support for Social Security by making it resemble the welfare program.
Supporters of means testing disagree.
David Stevens, co-director of KU's Student Legislative Awareness Board, said that like it or not, Social Security resembled welfare.
"It's not a savings plan like the AARP would like you to believe," he said.
And Social Security recipients, he said, aren't about to let anyone touch their benefits.
Another suggestion, putting a freeze on the annual cost of living adjustment increase, or COLA, is also met with hostility by the association.
Last year, Social Security benefits were increased by 2.8 percent, Certner said. The increase allows Social Security recipients to maintain their standard of living, he said.
A freeze on that increase would be perfectly reasonable, Stevens said.
"But it's political suicide to even cut down on the COLAs," he said.
Certner defended the increases.
"It's not this extra freebie," he said. "It's part of the benefits package."
But increasing numbers of retirees, coupled with increasing life expectancies, will make it impossible to pay for cost of living adjustments, Stevens said.
"The package changes when people live to be 79, not 59," he said.
"It's the public's fault more than the politicians'," he said. "The public doesn't like ugly truths."
And if politicians don't act soon,he said,they'll be forced to shift public funding from education and research into entitlements.
KU ON WHEELS Buses
Buses stop December 20,1994 and start running January 9,1995 *Evening bus routes will not run December 19,1994*
Spring'95 bus passes will be for sale January 9-11 on the 6th floor of the Kansas Union $55 for students and $70 for non-students
Last night for saferide is Sunday 18,1994 Saferide starts back up January 8,1995
Saferide