The Social Security trust fund will be able to pay out benefits for a year longer than prior estimates, the Treasury Department said, the first time officials have issued such a rosy outlook since their 1983 report
Despite the revised projections, and given broad demographic trends and an aging U.S. population, the financial outlook for Social Security, largely funded by payroll taxes, is grim without government intervention or material changes to the country's tax code.
If Congress fails to act by the time the main Social Security trust fund is depleted, federal law would automatically cut benefit checks for retirees by about 20% across the board. That could prove disastrous for many Americans who've budgeted and planned on that source of income for years, betting that their contributions via payroll taxes during their working years would ultimately come back to provide for them in their retirement.
The various funds act as pillars upholding the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans and are among the most popular safety-net programs in the U.S. So popular are the federally managed programs that political strategists often dub them the"third rail" of U.S. politics — simply too dangerous to touch or reduce.
"Lawmakers have many policy options that would reduce or eliminate the long-term financing shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare," the government report said."Taking action sooner rather than later will allow consideration of a broader range of solutions and provide more time to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare."
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