Chicken Little

Contrary to what the champions of Social Security privatization say, the new updated projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells us the sky isn't falling:

CBO projects that under current law Social Security outlays will first exceed revenues from payroll taxes and taxation of benefits in 2020 and that the program will exhaust the trust funds in 2052. After the trust funds are exhausted, Social Security spending cannot exceed annual revenues. As a consequence, because dedicated revenues are projected to equal 78 of scheduled outlays in 2053, CBO finds that the benefits paid will be 22 percent lower than scheduled benefits.

So no, Social Security is not in "crisis". It's not going "bankrupt", "broke", "flat broke" or "flat bust" even if we didn't change a thing, and that's just based on modest economic growth.
You might say, "but 2053 is less than fifty years away"! I say even at that point, benefits are reduced but Social Security doesn't completely run dry. And every time figures are adjusted to reflect current data, that year 2053 projection just keeps moving back to a later date. That's been the trend since the mid-1990s.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a "crisis" to me.


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