Social Security has been guaranteed for workers and employees whose payroll taxes have fully supported the program.

In 2009, more people filed for Social Security benefits than the program has ever seen since its inception.

Social Security’s finances are being printed with red ink for the first time since the 1980’s and there’s never been in the history of the program a larger deficit at almost $41 billion.

On the 75th anniversary of Social Security, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said if his party wins the fall elections, they would try to raise the program’s retirement age to 70. Raise the age requirement and let unemployment suffer? Watch the hordes of employers hire people in their late 60’s when the job market is already lousy? Good idea.

With 401(k) programs idling over the last decade and a failing economy, the solution, promoted most recently by Republican Dick Armey, of privatizing Social Security is unfeasible. Should workers surrender a guaranteed retirement plan (Social Security) for the capricious fluctuations of the market?

As Cary Elwes’ Wesley says in The Princess Bride, “DEATH FIRST.”

The potential irony of Wesley’s claim is disheartening.

The average life expectancy has reached almost 80 and people striving to survive in the economy have experienced difficulty saving money for the current period when costs related to healthcare have nearly doubled since 10 years ago.

On top of that, we’re seeing the demographic bubble of 78 million “Baby Boomers,” those born from 1946 to 1964, begin to retire. In 1955, the ratio of worker to recipient was eight to one. Currently, the ratio is three to one and by 2037, it will drop to two.

We don’t have enough workers to support the program and the imminent group of people who will depend on it. Instead of finishing school and entering the workforce, people between 20 and 34 are taking longer to finish their educations, marry, have children and establish themselves financially, according to the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood.

Democrats dismiss the problem of not having enough workers to support the approaching waves of recipients by pointing to the program’s $2.5 trillion trust fund, which could cover costs until 2037.

But there’s no cash there, which is what the government requires to actually pay off debt. The trust fund is chock full of IOUs and other bookkeeping shenanigans. Congress has been using the trust fund to hide the deficit, but that strategy has to be amended. It won’t work in 2037.

In order to pay off the money owed to the trust fund, the government will need to make cuts elsewhere. It also needs a plan for payouts past 2037 beyond asking people to drop out of school and start making babies like mad rabbits.