OPINION — Every year we mark another lap around the sun, and every year Washington, D.C., marks another lap around the same problem: Social Security is running out of money, and nobody in power seems willing to do anything about it.
As Brenton Smith recently put it in MarketWatch, we’ve “checked off another year of inaction on the sinking ship known as Social Security.” The Trust Fund is now projected to run dry by 2032. When it does, the law requires an immediate cut of roughly 22% in benefits. That’s not a threat. That’s simple arithmetic. OK, so …
Congress could raise taxes, again. It could push the retirement age higher, again. It could pretend the problem will solve itself, again. But the truth is simpler: the program is paying out more than it takes in, and has been for years. In 2024 alone, Social Security spent $91.5 billion more than it collected. The Trust Fund — often spoken of as if it were a piggy bank full of cash — is nothing more than a drawer full of Treasury IOUs. Promises to pay. Claims on future taxpayers.
