In its 2023 Trustees Report, the Social Security Administration projects that Social Security will be insolvent in 10 years, "one year earlier than reported last year":
A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC:
The Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report on the current and projected financial status of the two programs each year. This document summarizes the findings of the 2023 reports. As in prior years, we found that the Social Security and Medicare programs both continue to face significant financing issues.
Based on our best estimates, this year's report shows that:
. . .
- The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, one year earlier than reported last year. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.
Yikes! Yowzers! Zoinks! Say what? That's bonkers! #$@&%*!
Table 4 of the Trustee's Report shows that the reserves dropped by over $40 billion in 2022 because costs exceeded income:
Table 7 shows that cost has exceeded income since 2010 and that it has exceeded income and interest since 2021:
Recent projections by the Congressional Budget Office reiterate the problem:
In CBOβs projections, spending for Social Security increases relative to GDP over the next 75 years, and the gap between outlays and revenues widens. If combined, the programβs trust funds would be exhausted in fiscal year 2033.
The CBO's chart displays the problem:
See also, CBO: Social Security is Ten Years from Insolvency, Committee for a Responsible Budget, July 5, 2023.
Hani Sarji
New York lawyer who cares about people, is fascinated by technology, and is writing his next book, Estate of Confusion: New York.
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