Washington (AP) – When President Franklin D. Roosevelt He said this week he signed the Social Security Act 90 years ago, providing the United States with a “very healthy economic structure,” while still providing economic stability to older people.
Today, the program benefits nearly 69 million Americans each month. It is a major source of income for people over the age of 65 and is popular across the nation and political lines.
It also appears to be more threatened than ever.
For decades, Social Security has faced a looming lack of money to pay full profits. The program has faced more uproars since President Donald Trump took office in January. Agent staffing has been reduced. Union and defense A group interested in sharing confidential information has been sued. Administrative authorities including the president are wrong He claimed millions of deaths I received Social Security benefits. Former top advisor Elon Musk said the program is a potential “Ponzi plan.”
Trump and other Republicans have said they will not cut Social Security benefits, and the White House cites the administration’s “unbreakable commitment” to protecting the program.
But the program remains far from the healthy economic system Roosevelt imagined under both Democrat and Republican presidents.
Below we look at past and present challenges to Social Security, proposed solutions, and what is needed to strengthen our programmes.
Gobroke date has risen
The so-called Gobroke date — or the date when Social Security has run out of funds to pay in full — was moved by 2034, rather than last year’s 2035 estimate. Social Security can then pay 81% benefits Annual Report It was released in June. The previous date came because new laws affecting Social Security benefits contributed to the previous forecasted depletion date, the report concluded.
The Social Security Equality Act, signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden and enacted in January, had an impact. It has been abolished Windfall exclusion and government pension offset provisions, improving social security benefits levels for former public workers.
New tax laws signed by Trump in July Brendan Duke, the Centre for Budget and Policy Priorities, said it would accelerate Social Security bankruptcy.
“They haven’t laid out any ideas to fix it yet,” he said.
The law includes a temporary tax credit for more than 65 people, which apply to all income, as well as Social Security. However, not all social security beneficiaries can argue that. Among those who can’t, low-income elderly people who don’t pay taxes on Social Security.
AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said the number of beneficiaries is set to increase to 82 million by the time Social Security reaches 100.
“As we look forward to the next 90 years of Social Security, it’s important that it remains strong for generations to come,” she said in a statement.
The privatization conversation has been revived
The concept of social security privatization recently emerged when Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said this month that new tax-deferred investment accounts were called “. Trump Account “teeth” Backdoor to privatization“The Ministry of Finance has returned those comments though.
The public has been opposed to the idea of privatizing Social Security as Republican President George W. Bush launched a campaign to promote privatization of the program through a voluntary individual retirement account. The plan was not well received by the public.
Glenn Hubbard, a professor at Columbia University at the White House in Bush and a top economist, told The Associated Press that Social Security needs to be scaled down to maintain the benefits of generations. He supports restricted benefits for wealthy retirees.
“We have to make choices,” Hubbard said. “If we want Social Security benefits to look like it is today, we need to raise taxes for everyone a lot. If that’s what people want, it’s the menu, you pay a high price and you move on.”
Another option is to increase the minimum profit and slow the growth of benefits for everyone else. He said this would correct the ship without the need for a major tax increase if it was done over time.
“It’s a really political choice,” he said, adding, “Neither one is painless.”
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, is even more concerned about the possibility that benefits management could be privatized under Trump, rather than a move to a privatized account. The agency has cut more than 7,000 people from the workforce this year as part of the Ministry of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the size of the government.
Martin O’Malley, a commissioner for the Social Security Agency under Biden, said he thinks the problem will be deeper.
“There’s no openness, no transparency,” he said. “And we’re hearing about field offices that are wobbling on the brink of collapse.”
Representatives from the Social Security Administration did not respond to requests for comment.
Concerns persist
an Associated Press Center Opinion survey Issued in April It turns out that the growing share of older Americans, particularly Democrats, supports the program, but is not convinced that the profits will be available when they leave.
“A lot of what we’ve heard is that we’re short on money,” says Becky Boover, 70, of Lockport, Maine, who recently retired from public services decades later. She believes she should rely on Social Security to raise her finances, be grateful for the program and expand it.
“There are some simple fixes in my mind that aren’t political stretches,” she said. They include raising the income tax cap for high-income people and increasing the retirement age of 67 for those born after 1960, but she doesn’t tend to support the change.
Some people are asking to reduce the program
Rachel Gresler is a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Trump’s second-term Project 2025 blueprint. We called for an increase in retirement age.
Gröschler says that social security is no longer providing the intended purpose of being a social safety net for low-income elderly people, and is too big. She supports the pursuit of privatization, including allowing retirees to put Social Security Tax into personal investment accounts.
She also claims that as long as she has worked for the same years, she will scale back the program until all retirees receive the same Social Security benefits. It is unclear how this will affect middle-class earners.
