Last year, as the recession raged on and unemployment rates held frighteningly steady, a struggling Social Security program went "cash negative" for the first time since the early 1980s. In 2011 alone, this will mean an extra $46 billion in expenses taken out of the Treasury, systems trustees project.
It's clear that the program needs fixing but, on the verge of an election year, no one in Washington seems up to the potentially alienating task. Instead, a cyclical debate continues to draw momentum and press: Republicans refuse to approve tax hikes for high-earners; Democrats refuse to lower the level of benefits for program recipients.
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