A new report released this morning by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that economic policy has created the Social Security shortfall, not changing demographics.

[Josh Bivens]: Inequality, high wage earners seeing much bigger raises than everyone else is leading to this erosion in the tax base of social security.

Josh Bivens is a EPI Economist and author of Social Security's Fixable Financing Issues. He says that the earnings cap on Social Security taxes only covers 85 percent of earnings. If the earnings cap is adjusted to 90 percent of economy-wide earnings, then an additional $330 billion in additional assets would be in the Social Security Trust Fund today. Bivens says that a economic policy adjustment would do more to help save Social Security then a complete overhaul of the system.

Bill Spriggs is a senior fellow with EPI:

[Bill Spriggs]: In the future this will not be an issue of can we afford the program, it will be a political decision as to whether we afford the program.