Social Security Benefits Set To Be Expanded for Millions

[nmmi]

9. Yeah, but Congress will never pay back what they stole, according to some . . .

Last edited Sat Jan 4, 2025, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

Actually, the "stolen" money is being paid back. The trust fund assets are already being cashed in because SS benefits exceed SS income.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

Table 4: TRUST FUND OPERATIONS, 2023
....................... OASI DI
Net change in Reserves -70.4 29.0
. . .
Since 2021, the OASI Trust Fund has been drawing down asset reserves to finance benefits and will require increasing amounts of asset redemptions during the next decade. The OASI Trust Fund has a projected reserve depletion date of 2033, the same year as in last year’s report.

The DI Trust Fund is projected to remain solvent throughout the long-range period, as in last year’s report. The DI trust fund ratio increases throughout the projection period from 92 percent at the beginning of 2024 to 858 percent for 2098.

The Trustees project that the combined OASI and DI Trust Fund reserves will continue to decrease in 2024 because total cost ($1,482 billion) is expected to exceed total income ($1,382 billion). For OASDI, the Trustees project that total cost will exceed total income in all future years, as it has starting in 2021.

The report is signed by four high Democratic officials. It is not some scraping from some Facebook page or Heritage Foundation

Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, and Managing Trustee of the Trust Funds.
Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Trustee.
Julie A. Su, Acting Secretary of Labor, and Trustee.
Martin O'Malley, Commissioner of Social Security, and Trustee.

The process is automatic and will continue unless Congress changes the law

I have some Treasuries too -- some I-bonds and a TIPs bond, plus whatever Treasuries is in various bond funds that I have. They are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, just like the securities in the trust funds.

From some other recent DU threads, here are some misconceptions ---

[Quote]My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero losers in return for votes[/Quote]

they were -- and are -- invested in special non-marketable interest-bearing Treasury securities. And no, no "political pukes" decided to "raid the account" -- the loaning of Social Security surpluses to the Treasury in exchange for interest-bearing Treasury securities is the way it was set up from the beginning (blame FDR and the 74th Congress).

https://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html

Q27: Do the Social Security Trust Funds earn interest? -
. . . The Trust Funds have earned interest in every year since the program began.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

The only disbursements permitted from the funds are benefit payments and administrative expenses. The Trustees must invest all excess funds in interest-bearing securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The Department of the Treasury currently invests all program revenue in special non-marketable U.S. Government securities, which earn interest equal to average rates on marketable securities with durations defined in law.
The balances in the trust funds represent the accumulated value, including interest, of all prior program annual surpluses and deficits.

Again, this is a report by 4 high Democratic officials, the SS and Medicare Trustees.

[Quote]“It's my money”-give it back to me the way the system was designed [/Quote]

It is being given back as designed. Since 2021 SS income has fallen short of SS benefits and trust fund securities are being cashed in to make up the difference. See top of this post

More: Trust Fund FAQs: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/fundFAQ.html
Myths and Misinformation About Social Security Part 2: https://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths2.html
https://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html

Some more detail on the status of the OASI and DI funds, and the hypothetical OASDI fund --
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/

• The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, unchanged from last year's report. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits.

• The Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund is projected to be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits through at least 2098, the last year of this report's projection period. Last year's report projected that the DI Trust Fund would be able to pay scheduled benefits through at least 2097, the last year of that report's projection period.

• If the OASI Trust Fund and the DI Trust Fund projections are combined, the resulting projected fund (designated OASDI) would be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2035, one year later than reported last year. At that time, the projected fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing total fund income will be sufficient to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits. (The two funds could not actually be combined unless there were a change in the law, but the combined projection of the two funds is frequently used to indicate the overall status of the Social Security program.)

So the latest S.S. trustees' estimate of the trust funds exhaustion date is 2035. I read somewhere else that the provision Biden is set to sign, the Social Security Fairness Act, will advance that date by about 6 months.

Separate issue, but so it's all in one place: income taxes on Social Security benefits, go into the Social Security system, not into the general fund - see #8 for citation.