Social Security Trust Fund Analysis: Need to Look at the Long Term
Social Security took in only $3 billion more in taxes last year than it paid out in benefits - a $60 billion decline from 2008, according to federal data. The recession is blamed in part, as it added to the hundreds of thousands of workers retiring or claiming disability. USA Today, using Congressional Budget Office numbers, reports that the impact of the recession is likely to reduce Social Security revenues again this year and next. Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance, responded, "The overall surplus of the Social Security Trust Fund is still $2.5 trillion; this is not a cataclysm. We must look at the financial picture of Social Security as actuaries do, over the long-term, which would be over a 75-year timeline. We cannot allow privatizers to use temporary recessions - even deep ones - to ruin the system that has worked for millions of seniors over several decades."Source: February 12 issue of the Friday Alert
