Former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that lawmakers should "keep their options open" on Social Security reform. This is the equivalent of a doctor telling you to "consider various approaches" while your leg is actively falling off.
The man ran the Treasury Department. He had access to spreadsheets. He knows the exact month Social Security's trust fund hits zero. And his advice is to keep options open.
Lew could have said "raise the retirement age." He could have said "increase payroll taxes." He could have said "means-test the benefits" or "let the whole thing collapse and film it for YouTube." Any of these would have been an actual position. Instead he went with the political equivalent of "thoughts and prayers."
The next president and Senate candidates get to address the funding shortfall this November. What a prize. It's like winning a raffle where first place is choosing which of your fingers to cut off.
Retail traders are currently pricing in a Social Security fix based on a TikTok they saw about dividend aristocrats. They think Jack Lew's statement is bullish because it mentioned the word "reform" and reform sounds like progress. These are the same people who bought Chinese EV stocks because the chart looked like it was "forming a cup."
Lew served under Obama. He was White House Chief of Staff. He negotiated budget deals. And now he's out here telling elected officials to keep their options open like he's a guidance counselor talking to a sophomore about college majors.
The funding shortfall has been public information since before Netflix existed on DVD. Every Treasury Secretary for the past thirty years has known this was coming. Their collective solution has been to wait until they're former Treasury Secretaries and then suggest that someone else should keep their options open.
Photo by Connor Gan on Unsplash
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