Social Security’s ‘go-broke date’ keep creeping up—it’s lost a full year since the last accounting

·Social SecuritySocial Security’s ‘go-broke date’ keep creeping up—it’s lost a full year since the last accountingBy Fatima HusseinBy The Associated PressBy Fatima HusseinBy The Associated Press President Donald Trump.AP Photo/Alex BrandonWhen President Franklin D

Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 90 years ago this week, he said it would vide economic stability to older people while giving the U.S. “an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.” Today, the gram vides benefits to almost 69 million Americans each month

It’s a major source of income for people older than 65 and is across the country and political lines

It also looks more threatened than ever

Just as it has for decades, Social Security faces a looming shortfall in money to pay full benefits

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the gram has faced more tumult

Agency staffing has been slashed

Unions and advocacy groups concerned sharing sensitive information have sued

Former top adviser Elon Musk said the gram was a potential “Ponzi scheme.” At an Oval Office event Thursday commemorating the gram’s anniversary, Trump said that under his watch “we’re strengthening it.” But the president and Republicans who control Congress have not posed a long-term solution to shore up the gram

Social Security remains far from the sound economic system that Roosevelt envisioned, due to changes made — and not made — under both Democratic and Republican presidents

Here’s a look at past and current challenges to Social Security, the posed solutions and what it could take to shore up the gram

After that point, Social Security would only be able to pay 81% of benefits, according to an annual report released in June

The earlier date came as new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier jected depletion dates, the report

The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden and enacted in January, had an impact

It repealed the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset visions, increasing Social Security benefit levels for former public workers

The new tax law signed by Trump in July will accelerate the insolvency of Social Security, said Brendan Duke at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “They haven’t laid out an idea to fix it yet,” he said

Trump on Thursday repeated the claim that his new tax and spending law will eliminate taxes on federal Social Security benefits

That law has a temporary tax deduction for people 65 and over that applies to all income, not just Social Security

But not all Social Security beneficiaries can claim it; among those who cannot are low-income older adults who do not pay taxes on Social Security

AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said the number of beneficiaries is set to increase to 82 million people by the time Social Security turns 100. “As we look ahead to the next 90 years of Social Security, it’s critical that it remains strong for generations to come,” she said in a statement

The privatization conversation has been revived The notion of privatizing Social Security surfaced most recently when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this month said new tax-deferred investment accounts dubbed “ Trump accounts ” may serve as a “ backdoor to privatization,” though Treasury has walked back those s

The public has been widely against the idea of privatizing Social Security since Republican President George W

The plan was not well-received by the public

Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia University fessor and top economist in Bush’s White House, told The Associated Press that Social Security needs to be reduced in size in order to maintain benefits for generations to come

He supports limiting benefits for wealthy retirees. “We will have to make a choice,” Hubbard said. “If you want Social Security benefits to look they are today, we’re going to have to raise everyone’s taxes a lot

And if that’s what people want, that’s a , and you pay the high price and you move on.” Another option would be to increase minimum benefits and slow down benefit growth for everyone else, which Hubbard said would right the ship without requiring big tax increases, if it’s done over time. “It’s really a political choice,” he said, adding “Neither one of those is pain free.” Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, is more worried that the administration of benefits could be privatized under Trump, rather than a move toward privatized accounts

A Social Security Administration representative didn’t respond to a request for

Concerns persist An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Re poll conducted in April found that an increasing of older Americans — particularly Democrats — support the gram but aren’t confident the benefit will be available to them when they retire. “So much of what we hear is that its running out of money,” said Becky Boober, 70, from Rockport, Maine, who recently retired after decades in public service

She relies on Social Security to keep her finances afloat, is grateful for the gram and thinks it should be expanded. “In my mind there are several easy fixes that are not a political stretch,” she said

It called for an increase in the retirement age

Greszler says Social Security no longer serves its int purpose of being a social safety net for low-income older adults and is far too large

She supports pursuing privatization, which includes allowing retirees to put their Social Security taxes into a personal investment account

She also argues for shrinking the gram to a point where every retiree would receive the same Social Security benefit so long as they worked the same number of years, which she argues would increase benefits for the bottom one-third of earners

How this would impact middle-class earners is un

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