Social Security Policy Options
"Social Security, the federal government’s largest single program, provides benefits to retired workers (through Old􀀐Age and Survivors Insurance, OASI), to people with disabilities (through Disability Insurance, DI), and to their families as well as to some survivors of deceased workers. Those benefits are financed primarily by payroll taxes collected on people’s earnings. In 2010,
for the first time since the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, Social Security’s annual outlays will exceed its annual tax revenues, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects. If the economy continues to recover from the recent recession, those tax revenues will again exceed outlays, but only for a few years. CBO anticipates that starting in 2016, if current laws remain in
place, the program’s annual spending will regularly exceed its tax revenues..."