Source: CBO "Combined OASDI Trust Funds; January 2011 Baseline" 26 Jan 2011. Note: See "Primary Surplus" line (which is negative, indicating a deficit)
Matters are even worse than this chart shows. In December, Congress passed a Social Security tax reduction. Workers are temporarily paying 2 percentage points less, from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, in Social Security payroll taxes this calendar year. Since the government is making up the shortfall out of general revenues, CBO’s deficit projections for the trust funds do not include that. But CBO’s figures predict that the "payroll tax holiday" will cost the government’s general fund $85 billion in this fiscal year and $29 billion in fiscal year 2012 (which starts Oct.1, 2011.) Since every dollar of that will have to be borrowed, the combined effect of the " tax holiday" and the annual deficits will amount to a $130 billion addition to the federal deficit in the current fiscal year, and $59 billion in fiscal 2012.
Social Security has passed a tipping point. For years it generated more revenue than it consumed, holding down the overall federal deficit and allowing Congress to spend more freely for other things. But those days are gone. Rather than lessening the federal deficit, Social Security has at last — as long predicted — become a drag on the government’s overall finances.
Why Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme
Social Security is broke because it was squandered, not because there aren't enough taxes to cover it
Nonsense. The money has not been squandered. You don't seem to understand how the system works. During the days when SS was in "surplus," i.e., revenue exceeded benefits paid out, the "surplus" was deposited into the General Fund and Treasury issued interest bearing non-market T-bills in the amount of the "surplus" and deposited them into the SS Trust Fund, which now contains $2.6 trillion. Now that SS is running in the red, the General Fund is redeeming them to make up the shortfall.
The SSTF is part of our $16 trillion national debt and is held as "Intragovernmental Holdings" along with other trust funds like Medicare Part A and federal employees pensions. Essentially the T-bills are like the same ones held in the public debt but they can only be redeemed by the USG. So the money has not been squandered.
The problem is that SSTF represents an unfunded liability and when the T-bills are redeemed by the general fund, 42 cents of every dollar is borrowed. It is adding to our publicly-held debt.
SS is going broke because there are fewer workers to support it. SS taxes have been increased over 40 times since its inception and the salary cap on wages subject to the payroll tax has been raised almost annually. For example, in 2000 the cap was $76,200. Today it is 110,100 and will go to $113,700 in 2013.
During the period 1937-49, the tax rate was 1% each for the employee and the employer or 2%. Today it is 6.2% each or 12.4%. Social Security Tax Rates
SS is an insurance scheme, not a pension plan. And benefits are not tied to revenue or computed on the total amount of contributions you put into the system.