Rick Perry and Mitt Romney have begun a lively debate about Social Security, but it’s not the one we need. Their debate mostly concerns whether it was a good idea to establish the program. Perry has made it abundantly clear that he thinks the answer is no. The program’s creation was an affront to the Constitution. Romney objects to this line of argument. He implies that he would have voted for it in the 1930s.
Neither of them is saying much about the actual question the country faces today: Given that we have a Social Security program and are not going to abolish it or devolve it to the states (as Perry has daydreamt), what should we do about it? Romney says he is open to various reforms, though he has not made any specific proposals. Perry has been even vaguer.
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