XPost: alt.social-security-disability, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics XPost: talk.politics.guns, soc.retirement

Nearly a century removed, the Republican president heralded his
Democratic predecessor for “one of the most significant pieces of
legislation ever signed into law,” the bill that created Social
Security.

The program turned 90 this month. Without reform, its 100th anniversary
is not guaranteed.

President Trump still heralded FDR for the program, created at the
height of the Great Depression, and vowed in the Oval Office to preserve
and improve it “for 90 years and beyond.” The president said this was
his “sacred pledge to our seniors.” Had he not returned to the White
House, Trump boasted, “Social Security was going to be destroyed.”

And true to his word, Trump has not meddled with senior benefits. His
marquee legislation has, in fact, reduced their tax burden by making
Social Security benefits tax-free. But the actuarial tables are less
rosy than the president put on in front of the cameras.

According to new estimates from the program’s chief actuary, Karen
Glenn, Social Security will not make it to its 100th birthday as things
stand. Instead, the trust fund will be insolvent in just seven years.
Money was expected to run out by the first quarter of 2033, but after
the One Big Beautiful Bill became law and made benefits tax-free, that
forecast was moved up slightly to the fourth quarter of 2032.

At that point, according to analysis by the Congressional Research
Service, the federal government would have three options at the point:
increase taxes, decrease benefits, or a combination of the two.

Trump, who will have joined the ranks of former presidents by then,
seemed unconcerned with those predictions. “You keep hearing stories
that ‘in six years, seven years, Social Security will be gone,’” he told reporters, “and it will be if the Democrats ever get involved because
they don’t know what they’re doing.” So long as his party is in control,
he promised, “it’s going to be around a long time with us.”

Despite accusations from the left, Republicans have been unwilling to
touch the program despite the flashing fiscal warning lights. A
political football during campaign season, the popular entitlement is an entrenched third rail on Capitol Hill.

The financial troubles of Social Security are not new. They have
worsened through both Republican and Democratic administrations alike.
Every single report published by the Social Security trustees since
1983, as the liberal Brookings Institution notes, has found that the
program faces a shortfall. Confronting that fiscal cliff was once
conservative orthodoxy.

Former President George W. Bush warned that Social Security was “headed
toward bankruptcy.” Betting much of his legacy on the reform, the
Republican proposed partial privatization and a provision allowing
citizens to divert some of their taxes into investments. Ultimately, it
was stillborn and never even received a vote in Congress. Former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney later proposed more modest reforms while
running for president, like increasing the retirement age and reducing
benefits for the wealthy, only to be pilloried on the campaign trail.

Despite warnings from Elon Musk, who described Social Security as “the
biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” while still a member of the
administration, Trump has shown no appetite for overhauling the program
in its entirety. His administration has instead focused on making the bureaucracy more efficient while rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.

Social Security Administrator Frank Bisignano has been at the helm of
the agency for less than three months and arrived at the White House
eager to give a report.

Customer service has improved; the average wait time is down from 30
minutes to six. New technology has gone live; seniors can now access information 24//7 online about their benefits. The backlog of disability
claims has been reduced by 26% and 3.1 million payments were sent to beneficiaries months ahead of schedule.

To the delight of the president, more than a quarter of a million
illegal immigrants have been removed from the system, and millions over
the age of 100 have been removed from the rolls, though it is unclear if
a majority of those deceased centenarians were still receiving payments.

After the modernization efforts are complete and fraud is addressed,
Bisignano told reporters, “When we do all that, then we’ll really know
the answer to if we have a hole.”

Some experts find that kind of assessment overoptimistic and stress that
fraud is already comparatively rare in Social Security. “There is always
room for improvement, especially when it comes to the disability
program,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget concluded in a
recent paper, “but fraud and abuse are rare in the Social Security
program – certainly not large enough to make a significant difference in
the program’s finances.”

A spokesperson for the Social Security Administration told
RealClearPolitics that ensuring the long-term health of the trust fund
remains “a top priority” and that Bisignano is committed to working with Congress, the White House, and other stakeholders to strengthen the
program.

“During the Oval Office event today,” the spokesperson continued,
“Commissioner Bisignano detailed some of the ways SSA is working to
tackle waste, fraud, and abuse under President Trump’s leadership to
ensure that the program can continue to thrive for the next 90 years.”

https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/16/trump-vows-social-security-will-thrive -for-another-90-years/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)