Bad news for the retirement set arrived this past week: Social Security faces a funding shortfall.

The looming gap described in the program trustees' annual report was not itself news. Similar warnings have been issued for years. What's different is that the due date was accelerated by a year, from 2033 to 2032. That's a mere six years away.

If nothing is done before then to address the problem, Social Security's combined trust funds for old age and disability recipients will only cover about 83% of scheduled benefits. The fallout would be seismic.

In the past, I would react to such dire projections by preaching patience to the doomsayers. I would blithely and confidently pronounce that Congress will act when it has to, just as it did in 1983 when Social Security faced another serious shortfall. No group of federal lawmakers, I would declare, would be irresponsible or dumb enough to diminish the nation's largest social insurance program which happens to benefit primarily the nation's most loyal group of voters.

A roundup of........

© Newsday