Is Social Security going bankrupt?
Jason J. Fichtner, SSA: Social Security is not going bankrupt. You hear that story all the time: Social Security is going bankrupt, it is going to be insolvent. That is not actually true. There is money right now in the system to pay full scheduled benefits up to 2041*. After that, based on the Trustees Report, payroll taxes would no longer be enough to pay the fully scheduled benefits, so we would pay partial benefits after that time. That is in 2041*. A lot of things can happen until then. Peter Diamond, M.I.T.: And as long as there’s payroll tax revenue rolling in, there’s money available to pay benefits. So if the scenario plays out according to the projection, in 2041*everybody on the rolls will get a 22 percent benefit cut. So they’ll still have 78 percent of what’s scheduled. Now that would be a terrible social outcome if we let that happen. That’s why it’s important to crank up and get the thing fixed sooner rather than later. But because we have dedicated revenue for Social Se
