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The trust fund is currently worth about 3 trillion...it is not going bust anytime soon.It is backed by government bonds that the US has never reneged on, and by law, can only invest in those US government bonds.

Here is the situation:

Currently Social Security is running a surplus which Congress is spending every year to help reduce the deficit. But that number is beginning to decline (currently about 300 billion) and will be gone in 2016. Each year it is declining which gives less money to Congress to steal.

In 2016, the Social Security System will go to Congress to make up for the deficits it has after 2016 with the IOUs the Congress have given them. At this point they have enough IOUs to last them to 2040, but Congress has spent all the money. They will either have to raise taxes or cut spending to cover it.

In 2040 the IOUs run out and current taxes will only pay about a percentage of what is needed (about 30%).

Pretty accurate summation, but it means that no one is gonna do anything until about 2025 when the shortfall begins hurting.

If we can maintain our growth of 2 to 3% GDP annually, the US can afford to make up the shortfall for a long time.

I’m not suggesting there is no problem with SS, just that there is no point in worrying about it now.

I believe you would enjoy this website, I check his figures regularly and he is usually spot on.

http://optimist123.com/

There is so much disinformation re: Social Security it almost persuades on not to even enter the debate here.

Congress does not spend the annual surplus in the trust fund. All FICA payroll deductions to Social security are transferred into the trust fund. The only payments made out of the trust fund are payments made to Social Security recipients (and I believe the administration costs). When an annual surplus occurs it appears as an accounting entry in the consolidated federal budget for that year. If the surplus were say $300B in a given year it has the effect of reducing or offsetting $300B in the federal deficit that year. While Congress may see that as a pile of available money in some sense, the funds never leave the trust fund. They are never “spent” for other purposes. They may mask additional deficit spending in the general revenue side of the budget, but they are not spent.

The SSA trust accounts should not be consolidated with the rest of the federal budget. It makes no sense that they are, but this is the federal government after all.

Three are a million things that are debatable about Social Security, this isn’t one of them.