Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Social Security Party is Almost Over

The big boys (Fortune Magarag) have just figured out what Eggster posted --what, a month ago?--that Social Security is almost on the shoals.

A report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.

Instead of helping to finance the rest of the government, as it has done for decades, our nation's biggest social program needs help from the Treasury to keep benefit checks from bouncing -- in other words, a taxpayer bailout.

Why not? Taxpayers have unlimited resources, right?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just. Damn.

To be fair, my analysis was (and still is) focused more on the here-and-now, while the CBO's and Allan Sloan's is focused more on the future.

Anonymous said...

Now that I searched my archives, we actually knew this would happen this fiscal year back in September. The difference is that the first round of cash deficits happen a year longer, and the curve is deeper.