Social Security has 6 years left. The fix that sounds cruelest may be the smartest

Social Security is six years from insolvency. That’s not a projection buried in an actuarial footnote—it’s the opening finding of a new report from the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), released Thursday, which puts the program’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund on track to run dry by 2032.​

And the fix lawmakers will likely reach for first—raising taxes—may be precisely the wrong move.

That’s the stark, counterintuitive conclusion suggested by PWBM researchers Seul Ki “Sophie” Shin and Kent Smetters...