AMAC Warns on Social Security’s Financial Cliff
The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) today reaffirmed concerns expressed in the 2013 Social Security Trustees Report about the program’s projected insolvency. Despite recurring internet postings dispelling the Trustees’ observations and projections of an impending shortfall, AMAC president Dan Weber commented, “Don’t be fooled by the temporary increase in assets for the next few years. We are going over the financial cliff!”
Basing his observations on material presented in the 2013 Trustees Report, Weber cited the urgent need for legislative action to correct the problems before it’s too late. He cited this passage from the Social Security Administration’s document “A SUMMARY OF THE 2013 ANNUAL REPORTS” as clear evidence of the problem:
Social Security’s long-term income shortfall is now larger than it has been at any point since before the landmark program reforms of 1983. The dates of projected depletion of each of its trust funds are unchanged from last year’s report. It is important to grasp that the amount of time remaining to enact a financing solution that is both reasonably balanced and politically plausible is far less than the amount of time projected before final depletion of Social Security’s combined trust funds. (emphasis added) Toward that end, this year’s report contains new illustrations of the magnitudes of benefit changes required if lawmakers wish to preserve solvency without affecting current beneficiaries. Importantly, even if a Social Security solution were enacted today and effective immediately, it would require financing corrections that are substantially more severe than those enacted in the 1983 program amendments. Each passing year of legislative inaction reduces the likelihood that a solution can be found that is acceptable to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. (emphasis added)
Weber also noted that the following excerpt from the “Office of Retirement and Disability Policy” website titled “Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security, 2013” helps put the long-term problem in perspective…
