Long-term Outlook for Social Security: Hearing Before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, First Session, February 2, 2005 |
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2004 Trustees Report actuarial annual Answer Average Ratio beneficiaries benefit cuts billion birth rates Bob Kerrey bonds borrowing CBO's Chairman changes cial Congressional Budget Office cost current law deficit dependency ratio economy expected Federal budget Federal Government financing future going Goss Graph growth HOLTZ-EAKIN increase individual accounts individual savings accounts intermediate projections investment issue less long-term look Medicaid Medicare ment Model offset outlays payroll taxes percent of GDP pre-funding private accounts problem proposals publicly held debt QUESTIONS FROM SENATOR rate of return reduce retirement revenue scheduled benefits Security trust fund Senator BAUCUS Senator BINGAMAN Senator BUNNING Senator HATCH Senator KERRY Senator LINCOLN Senator ROCKEFELLER Senator SANTORUM Senator SNOWE Senator WYDEN shortfall Social Security Administration Social Security benefits Social Security program Social Security trust Social Security's spending STEPHEN GOSS surpluses sustainable solvency tax cuts Thank tion Treasury trillion unfunded obligation workers
Popular passages
Page 57 - Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to...
Page 78 - Security trustees' 2004 intermediate demographic assumptions and CBO's January 2005 economic assumptions. Revenues include payroll taxes and income taxes on benefits but not interest credited to the Social Security trust funds; outlays include Social Security benefits and administrative costs. In this simulation, currently scheduled benefits are assumed to be paid in full after 2053 using funds from outside the Social Security system.
Page 78 - CBO's projections offer some guidance about the potential impact of those developments on the budget. By CBO's calculations, the Social Security surplus (excluding interest) will reach about $100 billion in 2007; but by 2025, that surplus is projected to become a deficit of roughly $100 billion (in 2005 dollars). That $200 billion swing will create significant challenges for the budget as a whole. Second, the demand on the budget from Social Security will take place simultaneously with — but be...
Page 76 - ... economic assumptions. Revenue includes payroll taxes and income taxes on benefits but not interest credited to the Social Security trust funds; outlays include inisi-fund-financed Social Security benefits and administrative costs.
Page 57 - We owe it to our children and grandchildren to have an honest debate on this issue and put this program on a financially sound path. No one wants to cut benefits or change the benefits for people currently on Social Security or those nearing retirement age.
Page 57 - Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in revenues.
Page 79 - The sooner that uncertainty is resolved or reduced, the better served will be current and future beneficiaries, who must make various decisions about their retirement.
Page 57 - ... the future financial status of the Social Security program. Annual reports from the Board of Trustees to the Congress on the financial condition of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program have been prepared continuously starting with 1941. These reports are required by law to include an assessment of the "actuarial status
Page 83 - The sooner efforts are made to address the long-term imbalance in the Federal budget — and in Social Security in particular — the less difficult the adjustments will be. Currently, workers, employers, and beneficiaries face uncertainty about the rules they will face in the future. Actions that resolve that uncertainty will allow those people to more confidently plan how to work, save, spend, and hire.
Page 75 - Policymakers will need to decide whether the program's goals are still appropriate and, if so, how changes to Social Security would aid or hinder the achievement of those goals and affect various types of beneficiaries and taxpayers. Those decisions will also need to take into account...