Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

mahatmakanejeeves

(60,360 posts)
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:33 AM 23 hrs ago

Trump proposals could drain Social Security in 6 years, budget group says

Source: Washington Post

Trump proposals could drain Social Security in 6 years, budget group says

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget predicts many of Trump’s policies could hasten the looming depletion of the Social Security Trust Fund.

By Julie Zauzmer Weil
October 21, 2024 at 12:05 a.m. EDT

A new report projects that the Social Security Trust Fund might run out of money within six years under a Donald Trump presidency, while Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposed policies would not meaningfully change the current trajectory.

Social Security faces a looming funding crisis in an aging country, with trustees most recently predicting that the retirement and disability program’s trust fund will become insolvent in 2035. Many of Trump’s campaign proposals would accelerate that timeline, potentially by years, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that opposes large federal deficits.

In a report released Monday, the organization concluded that many of Trump’s proposed second-term agenda items all work in the same direction when it comes to the Social Security Trust Fund. The budget group did not produce a similar report on Harris’s policies because they would have a negligible effect measured only in weeks or months rather than years, said Marc Goldwein, CRFB’s senior policy director.

{snip}

Most directly, Trump has promised that no Social Security recipients should have to pay federal income taxes on their benefits. Under current law, 40 percent of beneficiaries pay taxes on some portion of their Social Security. The tax they pay on their benefits goes directly back to the trust fund, and getting rid of it could cost the program almost $1 trillion over 10 years, the report forecast.

{snip}

By Julie Weil
Julie Z. Weil reports on taxes. She has worked at The Post since 2013, including four years covering religion in America and two covering local government in D.C.follow on X @juliezweil

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/21/social-security-crfb-trump-harris/

37 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Trump proposals could drain Social Security in 6 years, budget group says (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves 23 hrs ago OP
I'm hypothesizing that MAGA is, nearly unanimously, comprised of those who believe........ jaxexpat 21 hrs ago #1
Well said jayschool2013 20 hrs ago #9
A lot of the Felon's cultists are seniors receiving Social Security! MontanaMama 12 hrs ago #28
Many boomers feel left out of the new age. That's on them. Life's mostly about "how you take it". jaxexpat 11 hrs ago #31
And yet the MAGA crowd will adore this COL Mustard 21 hrs ago #2
Comforting to know it's supposed to be insolvent just when BWdem4life 21 hrs ago #3
It won't be flat broke.... AZ8theist 20 hrs ago #4
I know, right? I become eligible for benefits in 2033 (if I took early) Moostache 15 hrs ago #19
Take it eRly moonshinegnomie 13 hrs ago #22
I agree, but you'd have to NOT spend it (i.e. save it), while you are working. Otherwise, people might get screwed. ... aggiesal 12 hrs ago #27
I have not...but I thought I would have more than 6 years to decide too! (n/t) Moostache 11 hrs ago #32
Read my response #23 n/t aggiesal 13 hrs ago #24
Raise the eligibility age to 70 and multigraincracker 20 hrs ago #5
or roofer, or firefighter, or any other high risk occupation spooky3 16 hrs ago #15
If the Republicans manage to ruin markodochartaigh 20 hrs ago #6
The best way to save it is remove the income cap. multigraincracker 20 hrs ago #8
Too fatty ArkansasDemocrat1 15 hrs ago #18
What a surprise North Coast Lawyer 15 hrs ago #21
A shame that the MAGAts are more intent on ridding the world of brown people. Miles Archer 20 hrs ago #7
It will just empty the trust fund Farmer-Rick 17 hrs ago #10
Didn't read the article LittleGirl 17 hrs ago #11
"continue to be taxed on the money you were taxed on 40 years ago." Bayard 15 hrs ago #17
I agree! Millionaires don't need it! nt LittleGirl 15 hrs ago #20
Morons who vote against their own economic self-interests. Tarzanrock 17 hrs ago #12
My solution... Scalded Nun 17 hrs ago #13
I recall a young man some 25 years ago or so calling your Item 1 a Prairie Gates 4 hrs ago #37
Republicans have been trying to brake SS for years, republianmushroom 16 hrs ago #14
Their doing a good job breaking the Post Office underpants 12 hrs ago #26
Improving and protecting SocSec is simple Rocknation 15 hrs ago #16
I wish people could understand what the Social Security Trust Fund is ... aggiesal 13 hrs ago #23
People talk about 2035 as if it's still 2005. "In 6 years" is only 4 years fewer than Harris' policies mathematic 13 hrs ago #25
There is no "will" because there is no NEED to do much of anything. valleyrogue 4 hrs ago #36
So, a Trump "concept of a plan" that would actually work. dchill 12 hrs ago #29
The cuts to SSAN benefits being taxed is just the start. Old Crank 11 hrs ago #30
The Con would make sure every penny in SS coffers line his pockets onetexan 10 hrs ago #33
No problem. Turbineguy 9 hrs ago #34
It's all bullshit. SS can't "go broke." valleyrogue 4 hrs ago #35

jaxexpat

(7,588 posts)
1. I'm hypothesizing that MAGA is, nearly unanimously, comprised of those who believe........
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 05:55 AM
21 hrs ago

Social Security will not be there for them. Further, that many of them have no savings, implying they have no real sense of a place in their own or any other future. If I'm right, we are a nation of incipient and destitute suicides.............and that may well be Trump's plan. Such a lazy approach to life seems appropriate for one who never bothers to think any of the hard stuff through.

MontanaMama

(23,944 posts)
28. A lot of the Felon's cultists are seniors receiving Social Security!
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:08 PM
12 hrs ago

They support the destruction of their own safety net. It makes no sense.

jaxexpat

(7,588 posts)
31. Many boomers feel left out of the new age. That's on them. Life's mostly about "how you take it".
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:58 PM
11 hrs ago

Mental health is an attitude. Much more so than the inconsequential subjectivity of "how it is". For about 60% of people, it's a natural response of maturity vs a childishness which perpetually manifests as a special kind of resentment for real (or even perceived) offense, thus justifying their offensiveness.

COL Mustard

(6,773 posts)
2. And yet the MAGA crowd will adore this
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 05:59 AM
21 hrs ago

Because it’s a Trump proposal, and it’ll own the libs that much faster!

AZ8theist

(6,338 posts)
4. It won't be flat broke....
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 06:42 AM
20 hrs ago

...but benefits may be reduced unless congress acts.
Makes the need to vote Democratic that much more urgent. There are planty of Dem lawmakers who want to expand SS rather than gut it like the Repukes.

Tax the living piss out of Eloon Musk and the sysem will be solvent.*

*not really, but changes to tax withholding will solve any "crisis" in the future. Making the rich "pay their fare share" is not a campaign slogan. It is a real life need for millions of Americans to survive in the future.

Moostache

(10,096 posts)
19. I know, right? I become eligible for benefits in 2033 (if I took early)
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:57 AM
15 hrs ago

I want to beat these politicians over the head with blunt objects already...

moonshinegnomie

(2,871 posts)
22. Take it eRly
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 01:57 PM
13 hrs ago

I did the math. It’s true you get higher benifits if you wait but the break even is around age 78. If you take it at 62 you get 5 years of benefits that take a decade of higher payments to recoup

aggiesal

(9,406 posts)
27. I agree, but you'd have to NOT spend it (i.e. save it), while you are working. Otherwise, people might get screwed. ...
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:54 PM
12 hrs ago

by paying taxes at a much higher rate, because of their current salary.
Also, both campaigns are wanting to remove the federal tax from SS payments.
Have you calculated what the difference would be paying a higher tax rate on current SS payments while still working, versus not working?

spooky3

(35,793 posts)
15. or roofer, or firefighter, or any other high risk occupation
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:37 AM
16 hrs ago

However, I wouldn't mind if one particular McDonald's temporary weekend employee (Donald McD) was denied benefits...

markodochartaigh

(1,857 posts)
6. If the Republicans manage to ruin
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 07:14 AM
20 hrs ago

Social Security millions of seniors will be forced to sell their only major asset, their homes, into a market that will be spiraling downward because of the massive oversupply, in order to get money for their living expenses. Seniors will lose their homes, and the younger generation will lose their inheritance.

And, as in 2008, the houses will be snatched up for pennies on the dollar, in cash, in large groups by hedge funds. Individuals who want to buy a house will have little chance at the bottom of the market against hedge funds who can buy a hundred houses at once for cash from their golfing buddies at the bank.

Ruining Social Security is simply a way of asset stripping the working and middle class for the benefit of the rich.

multigraincracker

(33,835 posts)
8. The best way to save it is remove the income cap.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 07:30 AM
20 hrs ago

Make billionaires pay 7% of all their income into it.
Taxes are the cost of Civilization. Or, Eat The Rich

21. What a surprise
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:59 AM
15 hrs ago

Rigging the game in favor of the rich and facilitating the transfer of what few scraps ordinary folks have accumulated back the the rich? Say it ain't so!

Miles Archer

(18,924 posts)
7. A shame that the MAGAts are more intent on ridding the world of brown people.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 07:24 AM
20 hrs ago

I'm stunned by the "it won't happen to me" mentality.

And what we already know is that if Trump DID get back into power and these things happened, Democrats would be blamed for it.

The adults need to get out there and vote because the children clearly do not comprehend what's at stake.

Farmer-Rick

(11,103 posts)
10. It will just empty the trust fund
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 09:49 AM
17 hrs ago

When Social Security was first developed, the current work force paid for their parents' retirement. The trust fund was simply a pass through account, where money sat momentarily until it was time to distribute it.

Then came senile old Raygun and he doubled the SocSec tax. He put half our SocSec tax in the trust fund and half went to the Baby Boomers' parents. That hunk of money in the trust fund is supposed to go away after we Baby Boomers all die. It's supposed to turn into a pass through account again.

So it doesn't matter if the account is mostly emptied, as long as this generation still is putting money into it for their retirement. A simple adjustment to force lazy billionaires to pay their fair share will easily solve any future problems.

Also Republicans like to lump Medicare and SocSec together. This makes it seem like the healthcare funding problems of our commercialized medical practices are SocSec problems. They are Not.

Unless Trump starts taking out money from the SocSec trust fund to pay for government or his excessive lifestyle, SocSec should be solvent.

LittleGirl

(8,373 posts)
11. Didn't read the article
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 09:57 AM
17 hrs ago

But my first SS check is in the mail. My birthday is Wednesday and my first check is next month. If I had to live off of that check, I'd have to move to Alabama or something because there is no way I could pay rent, gas, groceries and utilities on less than 1500 a month. Nope. I saved all of my life but there is something to be said about people that work for 40 years, pay taxes for every one of those 40 years and then draw SS and continue to be taxed on the money you were taxed on 40 years ago. I remember when Obama proposed that SS recipients made less than 50k, they wouldn't be taxed anymore. It never happened and I know Obama lost one vote over that, not me, someone I know.

Thankfully, my spouse is still working and still contributing to our nest egg despite me drawing as soon as I'm eligible. He also manages our investments so that we can survive when he retires in about another decade.

Bayard

(23,918 posts)
17. "continue to be taxed on the money you were taxed on 40 years ago."
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:51 AM
15 hrs ago

This righteously pisses me off.

No taxes on SS--like it used to be before Reagan got hold of it, and raise the cap. Simple and understandable, even for MAGAts. That would give all of us who depend on it a hell of a lot more money every month, and make the wealthy pay their fair share. I also think, once they pass a certain threshold of income, they should not be eligible for drawing SS.

Tarzanrock

(398 posts)
12. Morons who vote against their own economic self-interests.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 10:16 AM
17 hrs ago

Morons who vote against their own economic self-interests. If you are not rich, you have to be some kind of "special" stupid to vote for Republicans. Ever since Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats started the Social Security Pension program it has long been the "wet" dream of the Republican Fascists to kill Social Security. The Turd will do it! The idea of "America" when it was founded was that it was not to be a "tax haven" for Oligarchs and the Aristocracy -- a place where rich people only pay a 12% Capital Gains Tax on income which they report and everyone else pays at least 30% or more out of their weekly paychecks.

Scalded Nun

(1,327 posts)
13. My solution...
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 10:29 AM
17 hrs ago

1. Remove the SS trust fund account from any federal budget process and protect the funds from being accessed (Stealing, 'Borrowing', Redirecting, etc.).
2. Pay back in to that fund all monies that have been 'Borrowed, Stolen, or Misappropriated' over the years.
3. Eliminate the wages cap.

I have done no math in this area, but I figure that should set SS on a good course for the future.

None of this will affect most Americans, so the fight to do it would be long and bloody.

Prairie Gates

(2,513 posts)
37. I recall a young man some 25 years ago or so calling your Item 1 a
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:14 PM
4 hrs ago

Lock Box.

He was roundly mocked across news and media for that one. Ay yay yay.

Rocknation

(44,809 posts)
16. Improving and protecting SocSec is simple
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:44 AM
15 hrs ago

Remove the salary ceiling that prevents everyone from paying (which would lower everyone's rate) and place it on the benefits (the annual U.S. median income, for instance).


Rocknation

aggiesal

(9,406 posts)
23. I wish people could understand what the Social Security Trust Fund is ...
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:27 PM
13 hrs ago

Back in the 80's, Reagan (I'm sick that Reagan was the one to implement this) figured out that the Baby Boomers were about to retire in the 90's & 2000's and that Social Security did not have the funds to supports all these new retiree's.

So a Trust Fund was created, where my generation basically paid double the Social Security with about half going into the Trust Fund.
The money from this Trust Fund was invested in U.S. Treasury Bonds to make some interest on that money.
This Trust Fund would then increase in size until the payment of Social Security to Baby Boomers (& everyone really), exceeded the amount coming into the Trust Fund, which happened around 2011, I believe. When this happened, some of the U.S. Bonds were sold to cover the difference. This happens every month.
The Trust Fund is expected to eventually deplete down to $0, where at this point, Social Security would just work of incoming money to pay the outgoing money.
It was originally estimated that the Trust Fund would be completely depleted by 2042 (I believe), but through COLA's & under estimating the number of retirees, the date was adjusted to lower dates. Last I heard it was 2032?

If we don't shore up Social Security by 2032, then checks going out to retirees would only be about 75% of their total monthly check.
Obviously, the (R)'s are gaslighting for their benefit by claiming that Social Security is going bankrupt because the Trust Fund is almost depleted, but this was expected and SS is not going bankrupt.

The most popular method to shore up Social Security is the use of the Doughnut Hole. Where we would pay into Social Security up to $400,000 of income (Currently I believe it's about $170K), then not pay anything from $400K to $1M, then pay from $1M on up.
This method is trying to protect the middle class and tax the wealthier income earner.
Other Doughnut Hole option is $250K - $500K non-payment or $250K - $1M non-payment.

The only way to get this done, so to vote in (D)'s before 2032, because they are the only party that is willing to protect Social Security.

I'm not an expert, but I do know a lot about how SS works in terms of Trust Funds.

mathematic

(1,471 posts)
25. People talk about 2035 as if it's still 2005. "In 6 years" is only 4 years fewer than Harris' policies
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:40 PM
13 hrs ago

There is no political will to do anything about this.

valleyrogue

(843 posts)
36. There is no "will" because there is no NEED to do much of anything.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 11:08 PM
4 hrs ago

The Cato Institute and Concord Coalition LIES about SS dating from the1980s continue to pollute public discourse. It is not "going broke." If there is ever a "shortfall," the money can be made up through the general fund. That is how Supplement Security Income (SSI) is funded.

This is all about greed on the part of corporations and their filthy rich owners who do not want to pay their share of the FICA taxes.

Old Crank

(4,455 posts)
30. The cuts to SSAN benefits being taxed is just the start.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:54 PM
11 hrs ago

Another issue that got glossed over was not taxing tip income. Service workers pay into the system which includes their tip income. Not taxing tips will cut their benefits later in life. The plans for child leave by taking it off social secutiry payments later also cuts the amount to be paid for workers.

I read another issue about tips not being taxed having to do with people earning large bonuses. Those would likely become tips. So people at stock trading houses that get fat bonuses at year end would have those called tips and be untaxed.

Turbineguy

(38,210 posts)
34. No problem.
Mon Oct 21, 2024, 06:22 PM
9 hrs ago

Trump will still be President and he still gets paid and has a place to live.

His supporters will discover that their Social Security checks come from the gubmint.

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Trump proposals could dra...