Framing the debate

Framing the debate

Ideological arguments

Ideology plays a major part of framing the Social Security debate. Key points of philosophical debate include, among others:

• degree of ownership and choice among investment alternatives in determining one's own financial future;
• the right and extent of government taxation and wealth redistribution;
• trade-offs between social insurance and wealth creation;
• whether the program represents (or is perceived) as a charitable safety net (entitlement) or earned benefits; and
• intergenerational equity, meaning the rights of those living today to impose burdens on future generations.
  

Retirees and others who receive Social Security benefits have become an important bloc of voters in the United States. Indeed, Social Security has been called "the of American politics" — meaning that any politician sparking fears about cuts in benefits by touching the program endangers his or her political career. wrote in January 2009 that Social Security and "have proved almost sacrosanct in political terms, even as they threaten to grow so large as to be unsustainable in the long run