Fixing Social Security (R. Douglas Arnold) by Princeton Policy Podcasts published on 2022-04-18T14:17:10Z Social Security remains beloved and holds bipartisan support among American citizens. Yet the program faces an insolvency crisis. By 2034, when the fund is projected to run dry, it’s estimated that 81 million Americans will face automatic benefit cuts of 20%. There is nothing complicated about fixing Social Security, according to R. Douglas Arnold, the William Church Osborn Professor of Public Affairs, Emeritus, and professor of politics and public affairs, emeritus, at Princeton University. Legislators could simply raise taxes or they could cut benefits — by raising the retirement age, for example. What remains complicated are the politics of fixing Social Security, Arnold argues in a new book published by Princeton University Press. In “Fixing Social Security: The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age” Arnold explores the historical role that Social Security has played in American politics, why Congress has done nothing to fix its solvency problem for three decades, and what legislators can do to save it. We discuss the book in this episode. Endnotes takes listeners behind the cover and through the pages of books on politics, policy, and more — all written by faculty at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. The show is hosted by B. Rose Huber.