Just Facts Daily

The latest Social Security Trustees Report projects that SS will become insolvent in 2034 under its “best estimates” or “intermediate projections.” This means that the program will be unable to pay full benefits unless major changes are made. For example, keeping the program solvent would require raising payroll taxes by 25% starting in 2034, rising to a 35% increase over the long-term. Insolvency could also be prevented by reducing benefits by 19% starting in 2034, rising to a 25% reduction. Contrary to the common myth that politicians have looted SS, they have actually added money to it by repeatedly increasing SS taxes and transferring money to SS from the general fund of the U.S. Treasury. If they had not done this, SS would have become insolvent before 1980. Adjusted for inflation, the maximum annual SS payroll tax per person is now 9.1 times what the federal government promised would be “the most you will ever pay” when the program was enacted.