The SS mess is not Rick Perry’s fault, he is not even a part of the federal government. He is simply telling the truth about it. You can choose to believe it or not. Any politician saying SS can be sustained in its present form is lying. This has been known to be problem for a long time. I remember Nebraska Senator Robert Kerry talking about the impending SS crisis 20 years ago. SS will either change or go broke under any President. Here are a whole slew of proposals to modify it already being looked at by the government: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/solvency/index.html
The SS site says the OASDI fund will be exhausted 2036-41. Of course this is the same bunch that said SS would take in more than it spent until 2018, but we actually hit that point last year so take their 2036 estimate with a huge grain of salt. It will likely be much earlier. Do not misunderstand; I have paid into this mess since 1974. I am as dismayed as anybody about what is happening with this ponzi scheme. I have been forced to support it my entire working life. I just recognize it for what it is. The quicker they can fix this problem, the better off the country will be. I would gladly accept my “contributions” being returned to me and calling it even but I do not expect to get that good a deal. Hopefully they can find a way to end it that does not screw people as badly as just having it go belly up. At the end of the day, I do not want my kids and their kids to get screwed by it too just because I did.
None of this is the fault of the social security administration, the social security recipients, or the workers paying into social security however. It is all a result of the US government’s capital mismanagement. They stole the FICA revenue. It wasn’t a ponzi scheme until the government started using FICA revenue for general fund expenses. so arguing that it is unsustainable is kind of like liberals arguing against the death penalty because it costs more to execute criminals than to lock them up for life because they have managed to make it that way over the years through the various appeal processes. Both are disingenuous arguments that ignore the cause of the effect.