Long-Term Social Security Shortfall Smaller Than Cost Of Extending Tax Cuts For Top 1 Percent

Social Security Shortfall vs.Costs of Tax Cuts (Over 75 Years)Social Security's shortfall over the next 75 years is slightly less than the estimated cost over that period of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts just for the top 1 percent of households.
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Trustees: Social Security Shortfall Manageable, Medicare�s More Daunting

What the 2008 Trustees� Report Shows about Social Security

Robert Greenstein on the Trustees Reports

multiple analyses listed to the right  The President�s Social Security Plan
multiple analyses listed to the right  Other Social Security Proposals
multiple analyses listed to the right  Social Security Solvency
multiple analyses listed to the right  Accomplishments of Social Security
Social Security by the Numbers

Is Social Security working?

Yes.  Social Security benefits raise nearly 13 million American seniors out of poverty, greatly reducing the share of America�s elderly population that is poor. 

Social Security benefits also raise 1 million American children out of poverty.  When both the breadth and severity of children�s poverty are considered, Social Security does more to reduce child poverty than any other program.

Does the talk of Social Security �bankruptcy� mean the program is in danger of disappearing completely?

No.  While Social Security faces a significant long-term funding shortfall, the Social Security Trustees report that it will be able to pay full benefits until 2041 and about 75 percent of promised benefits after that, if no changes are made to the program.  

Are radical changes needed to maintain Social Security?

No.  The Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years is about one-third as big as the cost of extending the recent tax cuts during that period.  It can be closed through a mix of moderate benefit changes and new revenues phased in over a number of years



 

 

 


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March/April 2005
Pulling a Fast One? The Facts About Social Security
By William E. Spriggs, Senior Fellow from the Economic Policy Institute

March/April 2005
Children Get Social Security, Too
By William E. Spriggs, Senior Fellow from the Economic Policy Institute

March 2005
The Life-Cycle Personal Accounts Proposal for Social Security: An Evaluation
By Robert J. Shiller
Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, Yale University.
December 2003
Reforming Social Security: A Balanced Plan
By Peter R. Orszag and Peter A. Diamond from The Brookings Institution.

�Social Security is like a car with a flat tire.  We should fix the tire . . . not borrow the money to buy a [new] car.�

Peter Orszag, in a December 14, 2004 Center media conference call.

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