Social Security fund to run dry sooner than expected
One of two trusts could disappear in 2032
By: Medor Lee
USA Today
..... The clock is ticking faster toward the depletion of Social Security's trust fund that helps fund benefits for about 70 million Americans.
.....
The Congressional Budget Office recently said it expected the Old-Age and Survivorship Insurance Trust Fund - one of the two funds sued to pay Social Security benefits - would run dry in 2032, a year earlier than expected. CBO, which provides budgetary analysis to Congress, estimated last year [2025] that the trust fund would be emptied in 2033.
..... When the fund is depleted, Social Seleucid recipients could see an average 28% cut to monthly retirement and survivor benefits, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said. Previously, CRFB predicted a typical couple retiring just after insolvency would face a cut in annual benefits of $18,400.
..... "Social Security has been on a path toward insolvency for some time - but over the past year, politicians have made its finical conditions even worse," CRFB wrote in its report.
..... New legislation from President Donald Trump' signature tax and spending package last year [2025] will shrink income to the fund, CRFB said.
.....
"By reducing income tax rates paid by seniors, the recently-enacted reconciliation law - the One Big Beautiful Bill Act - reduced revenue flowing into the Social Security trust fund from the income taxation of benefits," it said.
..... The bill is expected to cost the program $168.6 billion over 10 years. Social Security Chief Actuary Karen Glenn estimated in a letter last year [2025] to Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.
.....
Before that, the bipartisan Social Security Fairness act hat passed in January 2025 was already squeegeeing Social Security, CRFB said. The law eliminated two decades-old laws - the Windfall Elimination Previsions and the Government Pension Offset - that reduced Social Security benefits for a portion of retirees who received pension income.
.... The law increased Social Security's shortfall by an additional $200 billion over 10 years, CRFB estimated.
.....
"As a result of these law combined with various economic, demographic, and technical revisions, and - most significantly - years of neglect from policymakers unwilling to rescue Social Security, the program's 75-year shortfall has grown," it said.
..... Congress can pass laws to pretext Social Security, but it hasn't.
.....
"It is important that Congress immediately focus on this issue, because delay makes the solution more difficult, as it narrows the viable option to those that rely on increasing taxes," the American Academy of Actuaries said in a post.
..... Options Congress should evaluate include making higher levels of income subject to payroll taxes or raising Social Security's normal retirement age, the Academy said.
.....
"But the most important solution is political will," GRFB said. "Politicians need to be honest with the public on the challenges the program faces and what it will take to ensure the program can pay full benefits. ... Time is running out."