Cutting Social Security not the answer to budget woes

The Cheney Free Press of May 26, 2016 printed a guest commentary by Don C. Brunell, retired Pption of Washington Business. As expected of Mr. Brunell, his commentary presented the usual Republican rubric that the national debt must be reduced and one of the major financial problems of the debt crisis is Social Security.

It is true the debt is a problem but it is false that Social Security is a problem. In 2014 Social Security’s receipts were $931.1 billion and expenses were $906.8 billion, a net gain of $24.3 billion.

Additionally the system net assets are $2,721.8 billion. To Brunell’s credit...