General Discussion

It started running at a deficit in 1975.

That's why changes were made to the program under Presidents Carter and Reagan.

Even after the reforms to the program in 1983, it was known that the program would once again be running at a deficit when enough of the baby boomers retired. The hope was, that when the program once again started running at a deficit that we'd have built up a big enough surplus to last until about 2060. Unfortunately, for various reasons, it hasn't worked out that way. The program ran at a surplus only until 2020. It has been running at a deficit since 2021. Unfortunately, and unless there are some drastic changes made, the surplus will be gone around 2032-2034.

When that happens, if nothing is changed, by law, the amount of social security benefits that are paid out may not exceed
the amount that is paid into the program. The estimate is that when the surplus is gone, the total benefits paid out annually will be reduced by about 20%.

This reduction does not have to be voted on. Not a single lawmaker has to propose a change to the program for these benefit reductions to happen. All that has to happen for benefits to be reduced is for our lawmakers to do nothing.