Social Security crisis looms as program nears insolvency. Will Congress act?
WASHINGTON (SOA) — This year marks the 90th anniversary of Social Security. The program has been a cornerstone of financial stability for retired Americans, but that may not be the case for the next generation as the Social Security trust fund is on a fast track toward insolvency.
Every paycheck, your money is withheld for Social Security. The hope is that one day, you'll get it back.
But 90 years after President FDR signed the Social Security Act into law, the program is heading toward insolvency and only Congress can fix it.
Bill Sweeney, the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at AARP, is sounding the alarm.
“We know that for millions and millions of Americans, Social Security is everything. It’s all they have to live on," Sweeney told Spotlight on America.
Working Americans pay into the Social Security retiree trust fund. Those funds are invested in special treasury bonds that earn interest.
This system only works because at any given time, there are more workers paying into the fund than retirees collecting benefits. Changing demographics, like Americans living longer and having fewer children, are throwing the system off balance.
In 1960, for every Social Security beneficiary, there were five workers paying Social Security taxes. Today, there are just three workers for every beneficiary.
The last time that Congress dealt with Social Security reform was 1983, when Ronald Reagan was President.
Unless things change, in seven years, retirees will see their monthly Social Security payments cut by at least 24%, according to fresh projections by the program's chief actuary following the passage of President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."
Today's average monthly check is about $2,000. A 24% cut would take away $480.
This threat to Americans' retirement is nothing new, especially for Patrick Wetherille, who spent years trying to solve this problem.
Back in 2007, he warned that the problem was getting worse every year. At the time, he was a college student on a mission. Fresh off an internship at the White House, he co-founded the group Students for Saving Social Security. The group grew to 11,000 members, and even though they were just entering adulthood, they saw the red flags.
In 2007, Wetherille warned, "We’ll be retiring right when the system really starts to fall out from under us and Congress is going to be forced to do something drastic.”
Students for Saving Social Security did make waves in Washington, with access to then-President George W. Bush and top lawmakers, expressing frustration that Congress didn't address the issue in the 90s.
There are several potential solutions to revive the trust fund, including increasing taxes, raising the retirement age, gauging benefits based on wealth, and raising the Social Security tax cap (currently, income above $176,100 is not subject to Social Security tax).
Wetherille's group pushed for some of those same options back in the early 2000s. Since nothing was done, they will be needed on a much bigger scale today because the program is so close to insolvency. It's what he and his peers tried to convey to leaders, but he says partisan gridlock got in the way.
“It’s one of these issues where the longer you wait, the more painful the choices get," Wetherille said.
Today, a fix feels farther away than ever.
AARP's Bill Sweeney told us part of the problem is political.
"The challenge with our politics and with Congress is that everything is dealing with the emergency that's happening right now in front of us," he said.
We asked how lawmakers can be convinced to treat this like an emergency.
"Frankly, we have to have more voters bring this up when they talk to members of Congress," he said. “That’s your money that you will lose if they don’t get this done.”
The Social Security Administration website can tell you how much you've already paid into Social Security and what your estimated benefits will be when you retire. To check it out, click here.
