Yep, Social Security isn’t supposed to be in deficit until 2017. Surprise, the program made it 8 years early (almost). It’s not quite that bleak as surpluses are projected from 2013 to 2015.
Federal budget worrywarts (myself included) have been fretting for years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances.
Well, no need to worry about 2017 any more. Thanks to the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, the moment of reckoning is already almost here: According to both the budget proposed by the White House in February and projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in March, Social Security benefits ($659 billion, according to the CBO) will exceed payroll taxes ($653 billion) in fiscal 2009 for the first time since 1984. Payroll tax receipts generally hold up much better in recessions than income taxes, but job losses have been so severe that the CBO expects them to decline slightly from 2008, while benefits rise almost 9% because of cost-of-living adjustments and the beginnings of the baby boomer retirement wave. (See five reasons for economic optimism.)
It concerns me greatly, all the new government programs this administration is proposing (universal type health care, cap and trade) when we need to “fix” (or drastically overhaul) our present entitlement programs. The fact that the nation is in this situation, is exactly why politicians aren’t going to any tea parties. They are the problem, not the solution. If “We the People” really want “hope and change” we need a new brand of politicians. A pox on both of their houses (yea I know there’s a pun in there somewhere).
