insolvency
CEPR Examines Federal Budget, Comments on Social Security Insolvency Actions
The fiscal future of America is in question, repeatedly, these days. With the National Debt Clock showing the real-time accumulation of public debt at over $38 trillion, there’s quite a bit of consternation in the media over the economic implications…
Examining Three Key Social Security Reform Ideas
As the clock continues to wind down toward the full depletion of Social Security’s financial reserves, interest is growing in discussions about the inevitability of structural changes to avert insolvency. Recent controversy surrounding the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is evidence…
Ben Shapiro, Social Security, and “bankruptcy”
Bankrupt is a harsh term. At its worst, the implication is that financial resources are gone. What it really means, though, is an inability to meet financial obligations. In the context of Social Security, the term is unfortunately accurate, in…
The Social Security Trust Funds Explained
Social Security’s financial picture, dismal as it might be, is typically misunderstood. Those unable to grasp its relationship to overall federal governmental finances characterize it as a “Ponzi scheme.” Others persistently claim that money has been “stolen” or “misappropriated” from…
How Lack of Understanding Drives Perceptions of Social Security
CATO Institute’s recent Social Security survey produced results that indicate a fairly broad misunderstanding of the program’s fundamentals. For example, more than half of the 2,200 survey participants were not aware of the “pay as you go” formula used by…
The downside of “fixes” for Social Security insolvency
It’s not going to be easy, and everybody knows this. After all, the can has been kicked for the past four decades, and the Board of Trustees noted that the kicking can only go another seven years before the cuts…
The One Big Beautiful Bill Is Now the Law of the Land
The victory laps are underway, the pre-passage performance politics have ended, and the dust is settling on H.R. 1, “The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” Now, in the aftermath of President Trump’s Independence Day signing of this historic legislation, America’s…
A Contrasting View on Insolvency…Perhaps It’s Not as Dire as Many Believe?
Since the release of the 2025 Social Security Trustees Report last week, media accounts of the 2033 depletion of the program’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) cash reserves have focused on the consequences: the 23% across-the-board benefit reduction that…
Social Security’s Average Monthly Benefit Hits a New Milestone
The month of May is expected to see the average monthly benefit for retired workers reach the $2,000 level for the first time in history. For a quick comparison, the average benefit at the same point in 2015 was $1,363,…
DOGE and Social Security Savings: Clarifying the Possibilities
The airwaves and wires are aflame with projections about the dollars that can be cut from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid spending through uncovering fraud, waste, and abuse. Recent DOGE estimates are that perhaps $700 billion in spending can be…