Trustees: Social Security Will Run $84 Billion Deficit in 2015

[flowers]

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/trustees-social-security-will-run-84-billion-deficit-2015

(CNSNews.com) –  The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program commonly known as Social Security, which celebrated its 80th birthday on August 14, is projected to run an $84 billion deficit this year, according to the 2015 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees.

 “Social Security’s cost exceeded its tax income in 2014, and also exceeded its non-interest income, as it has since 2010,” the trustees’ 75th annual report to Congress stated.

“This relationship is projected to continue throughout the short-range period (2015 through 2024) and beyond….For 2015, the deficit of tax income (and non-interest income) is projected to be approximately $84 billion,” the report stated.

During 2014, $646.2 billion in payroll taxes was collected from 166 million working Americans.

But that was not enough to cover the $859 billion in Social Security benefits that were collected by 59 million people, including 42 million retired workers and their dependents, six million survivors of deceased workers, and 11 million disabled workers and their dependents.

According to the trustees, “asset reserves of the OASI Trust Fund, together with continuing program income, will be adequate to cover program costs over the next 10 years.”

But they warned that “OASI Trust Fund reserves become depleted in 2035” because the number of retired Americans will increase must faster than the number of workers “as subsequent lower-birth-rate generations replace the baby-boom generation at working ages.”

However, the legally separate Disabled Insurance (DI) Trust Fund will be depleted by the end of 2016. After that, “continuing income would be sufficient to pay 81 percent of scheduled DI benefits.”

[Paladin]

The Jewel of the New Deal and the greatest Ponzi scheme in history.

[raml]

It would have worked the way it was originally set up but the damn government had to get their hands on the money and screwed it up not the people paying in. This was the taxpayers money didn't belong to the government but they stole it.

[evadR]

When it lost its cash cow status, it all came unraveled.
Greatest PONZI scheme in history.

[Oceander]

It would have worked the way it was originally set up but the damn government had to get their hands on the money and screwed it up not the people paying in. This was the taxpayers money didn't belong to the government but they stole it.

No it would not have.  It was a ponzi scheme from the beginning.

And there is no "it" people are paying into.  That's another venerable democrat/liberal lie.  Social security taxes are just that, taxes, they are not insurance premiums or savings deposits or anything else of that nature.  I'm shocked that people who otherwise understand that taxes are just takings still believe that social security is something other than just another taking, just another source of general revenues.

[raml]

I thought they didn't steal from the social security fund until the 60's. I have never heard that the money from the very first went into the general fund. I am not stupid like you are implying I am saying the money was taken later not at the beginning. the fact is I would never have been for social security when it was first set up under FDR but it should have never LATER gone into the general fund. It was suppose to be set up for retiree's using their money taken from their checks it was not considered general fund taxes.

[evadR]

A copy and paste explanation................
Myth #3:
Social Security would be fine if we hadn’t “raided the trust fund”
 
Fact
: The program’s financial shortfall stems primarily from a growing mismatch between benefits paid and incoming revenue.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Social Security ran $1.3 trillion in primary surpluses, and including interest it has accumulated $2.8 trillion of trust fund assets. Those assets are invested in special U.S. Treasury bonds and effectively loaned to the rest of government. Many argue that these Social Security surpluses masked deficits in the rest of government and thus allowed policymakers to enact more deficit-financed tax cuts or spending increases.

 In that sense, it could be argued that Congress and the President “raided the trust fund.”
 
However, regardless of how that money was used at the time by the rest of government, the full $2.8 trillion dollars is still owed to the Social Security trust fund under current law and accounted for in this fashion. All measures of Social Security’s long-term imbalances assume the $2.8 trillion is first paid back by the rest of government.
Social Security doesn’t face financial problems because those funds will not be repaid, but  because the trust fund is dwarfed by thesystem’s projected shortfall over time. On a present value basis, the program is projected to spend $13.5 trillion more than it raises in revenue over the next 75 years, far more than the $2.8 trillion held in the trust fund. In other words, policymakers must identify $10.7 trillion, or about 2.7 percent of payroll, to make Social Security solvent even after trust fund revenue is paid back.

[Free Vulcan]

The Grand Whirling Circle of Suck is about to begin, Boomers have barely started to retire and the thing is already falling apart.

I'm an X'er and have planned for years to either end up independently wealthy or working to the day I die. Looks like the Boomers may have to do so too. If you are one get ready. The poor Millenials won't know what hit them.

[Godzilla]

Imagine how much worse it will get when 11 million workers (who, I might add, pay $10 billion/year into Social Security) are suddenly deported.  These workers are in the prime of their youth, so it will be a very long time before they are eligible (if ever).

The solution is either to:

1. Cut social security benefits
2. Increase social security taxes
3. Remove all exemptions from social security taxes
4. Increase the number of people paying social security

Which do you want?

I'd favor 3 and 4 before anything else.  But that means more immigrants, as we can't wait 18 years for a sudden flood of babies to grow up.

[jmyrlefuller]

Imagine how much worse it will get when 11 million workers (who, I might add, pay $10 billion/year into Social Security) are suddenly deported.  These workers are in the prime of their youth, so it will be a very long time before they are eligible (if ever).

The solution is either to:

1. Cut social security benefits
2. Increase social security taxes
3. Remove all exemptions from social security taxes
4. Increase the number of people paying social security

Which do you want?

I'd favor 3 and 4 before anything else.  But that means more immigrants, as we can't wait 18 years for a sudden flood of babies to grow up.

Or 5: phase out the whole program altogether. But no, they don't pay $10 billion in Social Security taxes because they don't have valid Social Security numbers and most of them are working under the table.

But nice try with your disinformation attempt.

[EdinVA]

Imagine how much worse it will get when 11 million workers (who, I might add, pay $10 billion/year into Social Security) are suddenly deported.  These workers are in the prime of their youth, so it will be a very long time before they are eligible (if ever).

The solution is either to:

1. Cut social security benefits
2. Increase social security taxes
3. Remove all exemptions from social security taxes
4. Increase the number of people paying social security

Which do you want?

I'd favor 3 and 4 before anything else.  But that means more immigrants, as we can't wait 18 years for a sudden flood of babies to grow up.

Keep the fraud, waste and abuse and throw grandma in the street?

Move people under 62 that are on SS to welfare.

[Godzilla]

Or 5: phase out the whole program altogether. But no, they don't pay $10 billion in Social Security taxes because they don't have valid Social Security numbers and most of them are working under the table.

But nice try with your disinformation attempt.

You do realize that the money is still deducted out of their paycheck (from those who've given a social security number).  And that money goes to the Social Security Administration.  What a fraudulent social security number does is make it pretty difficult to claim benefits.

Additionally, illegals have been able to get valid Social Security numbers since 2014.