Social Security in 2033 will see its surplus completely eaten away as taxes collected would only cover 75 percent of the benefits it needs to pay, the program’s trustees warned.
The now-$2.7 trillion surplus of the program is expected to dwindle as baby boomers flood Social Security with benefit applications, the Associated Press reported. The program produced surpluses for three decades as the taxes collected outpaced benefits for retirees and disabled workers, the report noted, but those have since dried up.
In 2010, Social Security for the first time started paying out more than it was taking in, leading to a situation where Social Security in 2033 is operating at a deficit with no excess left to make up the difference.
“To me, urgent doesn’t begin to describe it,” Chuck Blahous, one of the public trustees overseeing Social Security, told the Associated Press. “I would say we’re somewhere between critical and too late to deal with it.”
Unless Congress takes action to turn the situation around, Social Security in 2033 would only be able to fund three-quarters of benefits. But, because the situation is still more than 20 years away, there is little urgency on either side of the aisle to tackle the contentious issue.
The Social Security shortfall in 2033 is expected to reach $623 billion, the trustees said in a recent report. It would continue to grow from there, reaching $1 trillion in 2045 and $7 trillion in 2086.
Social Security reform looks to be a major issue in the 2012 presidential election, especially with Republican Mitt Romney’s selection of Congressman Paul Ryan as a running mate. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has made deficit reduction his central issue and plans to do so with a plan that would slash entitlement programs.
Ryan has been a proponent of a system that would allow workers to invest part of their income into private investment accounts, Yahoo News pointed out. Though his approach has drawn criticism from Democrats for what they see as harsh cuts to Medicare, Ryan has been one of the few politicians willing to lay out a detail plan on how to face deficits situations like America will see with Social Security in 2033.
I think people are starting to get this, but to reiterate, Social Security is not an entitlement and never has been. It is something avery American who works has paid a payroll deduction on every time he or she recieves a payroll check and, therefore, is entitled to recieve. Where the problem lies is for every dollar you pay for Social Security payroll deduction you employer also pays a dollar and it is the corporations who want SS abolished as it is as a result of that.
I find it odd they call it Surplus? I paid into this all my life.
your so correct–also how do we find out how much the government has taken from the S./S funds over the last 30 years–its never mention how much the government has taken and never repaid a dime.
They've done the exact same thing to the USPS.
They've done the exact same thing to the USPS.
You used the word "Entitle" in your argument that it is not one. Social Security is an entitlement–yes, you are taxed, but that money is not a personal fund for you–it is a tax to fund today's retirees. SSN is the world's largest Ponzi scheme, and it is now falling apart due to the lack of foresight of its originators to see the inherent flaw that birth rates change over time. Now the younger generation is going to suffer the consequences of that.
Wasn't it funded until the 2070s before? I don't trust any government number crunchers. As nutty as Al Gore has been acting going overboard obsessing about global warming he was right there needs to be a lockbox on SS. And people over 100,000 need to pay the full tax on their income. And if I get wealthy – say worth more than a few million I should not be able to collect it as I don't really need it and old widows shouldn't be getting hardly anything because they were low income, and may have not been married ten years to collect their husband's amount. I expect it to be in trouble in less than a decade if the tax is not raised, which will leave many American retirees impoverished beyond belief.
Randy Wilson You are full of it. SS can be made solvent for the next 75 years if the cap on income subject to payroll taxes is raised. Every expert says that.