President-elect Obama’s appointment of Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget has raised the threat level for an attack on Social Security to orange.

While Orszag has taken thoughtful positions on a number of policies, three years ago he came up with a plan for Social Security that would cut its benefits to all workers under age 55 – hitting people harder the younger they are.

In addition to penalizing youth, his proposal would introduce means-testing into the Social Security benefit structure, which would result in lower Social Security benefits for higher-income retirees. While means-testing might sound fair, the Social Security definition of higher income could change over time and, eventually, many of us could find ourselves ineligible for full benefits.

Orszag’s plan would undermine support for Social Security. People getting less from Social Security would be less likely to support it, eroding its political base.

Social Security already has problems in getting support from younger workers. Many of them erroneously assume there will be no Social Security money for them so they’ll just have to work until they die. The Orszag plan would reinforce this misconception.

Right now, Social Security functions well because it is universal: Almost everyone gets it on an equal basis. Voters broadly support it and strongly react against any frontal assault on its benefit structure.

We need to safeguard our own retirement — and our children’s. We need policies that build Social Security, not tear it down.

If anything, we should be looking for ways to get more people and money into it, strengthening it financially and politically.

People with private plans should be allowed to use their savings to buy in.

Needed revenue for Social Security should be raised by taxing incomes that are currently exempt. Today, the government imposes Social Security taxes on incomes up to only $102,000. All those CEOs making tens of millions of dollars get a huge break: Unlike most Americans, they don’t have to pay Social Security taxes on the lion’s share of their income.

President-elect Obama should be lowering the threat level against Social Security. But Orszag’s plan to cuts benefits is the wrong way to do it.

Ramón Castellblanch is an associate professor of health education at San Francisco State University. He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.