The issue NOBODY in Washington wants to talk about

It’s not Trump or Musk. It’s Social Security insolvency.

Eat-your-broccoli week at All Predictions Wrong. The topic is Social Security financing.

There must be something the United States Congress is good at! In fact, there is. The United States Congress is really, really good at kicking the can down the road on Social Security collapse.

The last time Congress strengthened Social Security financing was 1983. In the forty-two years since, nothing has been done about pending insolvency, which comes in 2033. CORRECTION: Reader Sarah Prudhomme, a CPA, notes that in 2016, Congress ended “file and suspend,” a strategy that allowed some married couples to double-dip benefits.

On the present course, by 2033 the Social Security Administration will need to reduce retirement benefits between 17 percent and 21 percent.

Joe Biden added trillions of dollars to the national debt, behaving recklessly with America’s purse. Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson promised dramatic debt reductions: instead the Big Beautiful Bill looks to add a few more trillions of borrowing. Neither party has shown it can be responsible regarding IOUs.

And neither party wants to deal with the Social Security problem. When insolvency comes, members of the Senate and House of Representatives will say, “We were never warned! We had no way of knowing, just no way!”

To top it off, last December – Trump reelected but not sworn in, Biden’s autopen still running the country – the losing party slipped through, and the autopen signed, a package of unfunded Social Security bonuses.

Now the GOP in the House also wants another batch of unfunded Social Security bonuses. Details on both below.

Annually the Trustees of the Social Security Administration issue a report on the condition of the program, with a statutory deadline of early April. It’s early June, and no report.

Are the Trustees trying to keep the red-ink numbers quiet, till Congress enacts the latest unfunded splurge?

Nobody but nobody wants to deal with this.

The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities drily supposes that because insolvency is eight years off, “Policymakers have time to carefully craft a financing package that minimizes cuts to the program’s benefits.”

Photo by Maria Lupan on Unsplash

In our dreams! If past is prologue, nothing will happen till 3 a.m. the day before the crunch hits, when Congress will pass an emergency omnibus no one has read.

Basic fact to consider: Social Security is not any kind of enforceable contract. It is subject to the whims of Congress, which may increase or decrease payments as it wishes.