Posted on 06/19/2025 11:06:27 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Social Security program is nine years away from insolvency, the Social Security Board of Trustees said Wednesday.
This forecast moved up one year since 2024’s annual report, which projected the program to deplete its funding by 2035. Now that projection date is set at 2034.
Medicare’s hospital trust fund will fall short in 2033, when it will only be able to cover 89% of scheduled benefits. This date moved up three years since last year’s report, according to the Medicare Board of Trustees.
“As in prior years, we found that the Social Security and Medicare programs both continue to face significant financing issues,” the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
Tens of millions of Americans who rely on Social Security due to retirement or disabilities would see cuts to their monthly benefits.
If no changes are made, beneficiaries will only receive 81% of their benefits in nine years, the trustees’ report says.
“This data underscores the need for lawmakers to take action to support the long-term viability of these programs,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “Under President Trump’s whole-of-government initiative, the administration will continue to root out waste, fraud and abuse across federal agencies to ensure quality service for beneficiaries and responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds.”
The Social Security trustees cited a recent law upping support for beneficiaries as the culprit for the insolvency drop from 2035 to 2034.
The bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act, which was signed into law earlier this year, added benefits for almost three million public sector employees, including teachers and firefighters.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a D.C.-based think tank, responded to Wednesday’s Social Security and Medicare reports.
“Where is the sense of urgency?” President Maya MacGuineas said. “We are running out of time to phase in changes gradually and avoid harsh cuts, sharp tax increases or unacceptable borrowing.”
Socialized medicine allows the leadership to create protocols that ensure 65+ folks go home early. It’s called a “perverse incentive”.
There are measures that can be taken, that would extend the life of SS/Medicare, until they can be replaced or reformed: 1) eliminate the “donut hole”, 2) gradually increase the retirement age for younger workers, 3) increase the payroll tax rate, 4) eliminate COLAs, 5) do a better job of policing disability payments. Others? These aren’t going to be popular, but if the alternative is insolvency and automatic cuts to benefits they may be necessary.
John McCain once said that fixing Social Security is simple: “Just tweak the knobs.”
After the democrats raided Social Security and Medicare for many years Hillary said they put it in a lock box to end it.
AKA tapped out but the hospitals are still full of illegals wonder what else they are draining to keep that going?.
NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT WITH ANYTHING
Social Security is the biggest financial scam in the history of planet Earth. Imagine the good that could have been done with ALL (empoyee& employer) the funds being placed in individual accounts out of the reach of government. American workers would be the ones retiring rich, not the thieves.
Exactly! Eliminat that and you’d save several tons of money.
There are x number of persons on Medicare (and Medicaid) whose death has been announced on the internet by the Funeral home, yet the taxpayer is still paying “capitation” to the IT company and to the Medicare Advantage and Medicaid CMO and to others to carry these dead people.
The government catches up with what the Funeral Home has told the government .... eventually in ....most cases.
What % are caught in 1 month? In 2 months? in 1 year? in 2 years? in 10 years? in 20 years?
If total capitation is $5,000 per month times 1 person times 300 months (which is not rare) is that $15 million? If there are 1,000 such dead persons in the use how many billion is it?
But wait, capitation paid for dead people is mostly caught in 3 or 4 months. If capitation of $5,000 is paid on 100,000 dead people month after month how much is it? It is the same dead people for only 3 months in this example. But it is roughly the same number of people month after month.
Question: When the Funeral Home Publicly publishes the death on the internet and promptly (within 7 days) notifies the government of the death, why is the government so slow to update its database?
Is is Waste, Fraud, or Abuse when an IT company or insurance company that is paid a capitation does not update its database?
But what explains the slow government bureaucracy in the process?
The above is about dead people in the database.
A similar question could be raised about the duplicate people in the database...One person with 2 or more ID.
“Illegal immigrants are claiming billions of dollars worth of Medicaid and other US benefits, according to data uncovered by the head of DOGE’s border team”
“Elon Musk is claiming Social Security numbers were handed out last year to more than 2 million immigrants who entered the United States illegally.”
Could illegal aliens be our biggest problem when it comes to this?
Maybe not the biggest but the top 5 for sure.............
Have you ever been inside a SS office or IRS or any other public accessible government office?
If so, you know the answer................
I recall a story at FR where a certain judge regarded SS Disability as deserved reparations for the Amish who appeared before him.
Congress has oversight of all the waste and corruption in our government.
As an institution. It couldn’t care less. What drives Congress is reelection. That is all.
We do not hate Congress enough.
Congress spends the money from social security and have been since the mid 1960’s. Plus the illegals are getting SSI, medicare etc. Congress in 2021 spent an extra $2 trillion that caused the massive inflation and price hikes on everything just so they could have a new baseline for spending more of our money.
Congress could cut that recent $2 trillion in spending and the economy would improve and with the illegals gone the social security program would also have more money. Even more if congress did not steal from the fund every year.
“””What drives Congress is reelection.””
Yup. Get reelected and fix it some other time.
“If so, you know the answer................”
14 interpreters on call and it sounds like the United Nation General assembly. And the employees are rude and lazy.
“We are running out of time to phase in changes gradually and avoid harsh cuts, sharp tax increases or unacceptable borrowing.” This is true of the entire US Budget not just SS.
People should quit going along with the fiction that SS is some special fund that is managed separately. It isn’t sacred and no one has legal obligation to a check. The check you get today is a politically determined payout. If Congress wishes to “fix” SS they could do so.
But since any said fix involves cutting benefits and raising taxes it is not happening until the US has a budget crisis. The crisis when only start when we have to pay 18% interest to borrow money.
The so called Trust fund is just book keeping sleight of hand. Thisfund holds US Treauries. The 12% takers from us goes to the US Treasury where it is immediately spent. The Treasury then gives SS an IOU for an offsetting amount.
When said IOU comes due the Treasurery will redeem it. If not does not have the cash on hand it either borrows the money or raises taxes.
If the Trust Fund was needed tomorrow it would make no practical difference in how SS is funded. But it might cause people to realize that SS is just another tax and spend welfare scheme. Taking money from one taxpayer to buy the votes of another.
But instead we have increased SS spending. The latest was a giveaway to government worker and unions of about $340bil.
Maybe someone can answer why there is an earnings cap on people who take early SS? I mean if you’re still working, even part-time, you’re paying into the fund.
“Because the Dem’s are raiding the fund giving money away to illegals.”
And untold $$Billions in “disability” fraud.
Great...right on time for my retirement.
Typical.
I thought that Dodge was finding all the fraud in SS. So why would we have less time?
That does not really help at all.
Medicare is backed by specific taxes on current wages. It is not enough to fund the program, but it is something. Medicaid is not backed by any tax source and is almost 100% financed by deficit spending. In theory, Medicaid will confiscate the estates of beneficiaries after their deaths in order to pay for the benefit expenses. In practice, the deceased rarely have anything to confiscate.
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