As usual, great hand-wringing has followed this week's report of the Social Security trustees. Although the report made clear Social Security is "vibrant and strong" and can continue paying full benefits through 2033, those who would like to cut or privatize America's most successful social program claim the sky is falling. For them, the absurd answer to potential benefit reductions decades from now is slashing benefits right away.

Last month, the AFL-CIO Executive Council called for increasing rather than cutting Social Security benefits, which provide guaranteed income to more than 54 million workers and their families. "It is time to stop thinking of Social Security as a problem and start thinking of it as a key solution to our retirement security crisis," the council said.

That call was echoed today in a Los Angeles Times column by Michael Hiltzik:

It's time to shut down the talk of cutting benefits, which serves nobody, and pump up the volume on making them better.

The idea has been around for years, but its supporters have been hunkered down against a conservative campaign to cut, cut, cut. It's emerging from its foxhole now because the long recession and two stock market crashes have put the final bullets into the hopes of millions of Americans for a secure retirement.

Of the customary three legs of the retirement stool, two—personal savings and employer-paid pensions—have been shattered into smithereens by the markets, high unemployment and changes in workplace benefits. Social Security is the third leg.

In other words, Social Security is now more important than ever.

The Rebuild America Act, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) recently, would extend the solvency of the trust funds by 16 years while increasing Social Security benefits across the board. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Harkin’s approach “is the way forward.”

"There is no excuse for cutting Social Security benefits, period," says Trumka. "Social Security benefits are too low, not too high. Working Americans have too little retirement security, not too much, and only Social Security offers the certainty working people deserve."