Rick Santorum on Social Security and Abortion

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The former Senator and aspiring presidential candidate shared his thoughts recently in New Hampshire:

The former Pennsylvania senator and potential presidential candidate was asked about Social Security during an interview on WESZ-AM radio in Laconia on Tuesday morning. He said the system’s design is flawed, but the reason it is in big trouble is that there aren’t enough workers to support retirees. He blamed the population trend on what he called the nation’s abortion culture, and said that culture, coupled with policies that do not support families, is denying America what it needs — more people.

Put aside for a moment the abortion issue and his implicit claim that “anti-family” policy is responsible for generational demographic changes. Santorum is correct that you can accurately describe Social Security’s long-term projected solvency problems as the gap between smaller younger generations and a very large baby boom generation headed toward retirement. The payroll taxes younger people pay will get used up faster by the boomers and he’s right: one solution to that is to simply have more workers paying payroll taxes. There were 827,609 abortions reported to the CDC in 2007. If you could accept Santorum’s conceit (I’m not sure many would) that an issue like abortion, which for many people involves the most sacrosanct matters of life, health and privacy, should be considered a public policy tool, you might see his point.

But If Santorum wants to address Social Security by increasing the younger, working population, isn’t there a more immediate, direct answer? Homeland Security says 392,862 immigrants were deported in the fiscal year 2010. There’s no certainty that all of those people would make for participating, tax-paying citizens — DHS claims that half of those deported were criminals — but there are millions of people in the world who would love nothing more than to move to America and work. Thousands more are already here illegally, working off the books and paying no payroll taxes. Opening the borders is a very straightforward way to get “more people.” But I wouldn’t hold your breath for Santorum to endorse immigration reform.