That’s the headline of this Columbus Dispatch article on the decision of the State Teachers’ Retirement System here in Ohio to make changes in order to ensure future solvency.
Similar actions are being taken or contemplated by pension systems across the country.
Fair-minded Republican and Democratic officeholders alike will, however quietly or off the record, agree that essential for addressing the national debt is a willingness to tweak programs like Social Security and Medicare. Some “sacrifice” will be required of us all, not just to ensure the solvency of entitlements, but the solvency of our government and, with it, the country’s national and economic security. That has been underscored by the debt commission co-chaired by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. (I also recommend Comeback America by someone who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, David M. Walker, to see this case made effectively.)
The question is, can a country that asked sacrifices of little more than our military personnel and their families to face what was called the struggle of our generation–the struggle with international terrorism–be stirred to make the sacrifices necessary to deal with our debt, ensuring solvency and future functionality as a nation, or not?
And can our leadership, Democratic and Republican, muster the will to focus us on the hard choices that need to be made soon?
What do you think?
Pension fund boards and memberships are making tough choices. Can we make them as a nation?