Poll: Large majority believes Social Security headed toward trouble

Only 32 percent supported reducing guaranteed benefits for future retirees, while roughly 4 in 10 got behind bumping the retirement age up a year, from 67 to 68.

A poll conducted for The Hill last month had similar findings, with 77 percent of likely voters believing Social Security is in trouble and 67 percent thinking that the amount of income that can be taxed for Social Security should be raised. 

Democrats on Capitol Hill have pressed the case recently that Social Security, which is currently projected to be able to pay out full benefits for the next quarter-century or so, is not in any imminent danger.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, said in a recent interview that he would be willing to consider changes to the entitlement program in about two decades. 

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other liberal lawmakers have asserted that Social Security has not played a role in the country’s current budget issues and have introduced legislation that would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress to make changes to Social Security.

“It is not in crisis at this stage,” Reid said in an interview that aired Wednesday on MSNBC. “Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that is in crisis. But Social Security is not.”

The percentage of Americans concerned that Social Security is headed toward a crisis has risen 10 points in the last six years or so, the Post/ABC News poll. In 2005, then-President George W. Bush made creating private accounts in Social Security a priority, a push that ultimately failed.