The Social Security Trust Fund

Last edited Sat Feb 21, 2026, 09:38 AM - Edit history (1)

So what is the trust fund? During the boomers working years, they paid more into the social security fund then was needed to pay out. The extra money went into the trust fund to use when payroll SSA taxes weren't enough to cover payments. Well that time did come and currently, a percentage of each social security check is being subsidized by the existing trust fund. The last time it became an issue before Congress, as a half-baked fix, Ronald Reagan and congress raised the full retirement age to 67. This pushed back the date the trust fund would run out.

Well, we're coming up on that date. Depending on payrolls, and we know how that has been going, the trust fund could run out in about 7 years or less. When the trust fund is depleted, federal law requires the SSA to only pay out what they collect in payroll SSA taxes, which is currently estimated will make the Social Security payments 20-30% less. Congress has never fixed this problem. Now would be a good time to start calling senators and congresspeople to get them working on a fix for this.

Raising the social security cap would be the quickest way to offset the coming losses. They would, of course, rather just see poor recipients suffer by either not doing anything or throwing around their privatization bullshit which will just cost more.

Also, if any of them give you bullshit about how the regular SSA money is gone, or taken by congress, that's not true. When Congress raided the trust fund they replaced what they took with IOU's in the form or treasury bonds - so it has been and will be paid back.

Everything else you hear about SSA not being around is pure bullshit as long as there are SSA payroll taxes being taken from each person's paycheck. Of course, Wall Street would love to get their grubby mitts on the 2 trillion social security fund right now so they could rip us all off. We can't let that happen.

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Edit to update with link to an article explaining the possible future cuts:

https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/social-security/social-security-trust-fund-depleted-2032-how-big-benefit-cuts-could-be-if-congress-does-nothing/