Trump could defund US Social Security in 6 years, report warns
The Social Security Trust Fund is the U.S. account from which benefits such as retirement and disability benefits are paid.
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The proposals of the Republican candidate for the November presidential elections in the United States, former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), could leave the country’s Social Security without funds in six years, according to a report published this Monday by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Committee describes itself as an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to issues impacting fiscal policy and includes some of the nation’s leading budget experts, including former chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees.
The U.S. Social Security Administration faces a looming funding crisis driven by age and is already projected to be insolvent by fiscal year 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
According to the committee’s analysis, published two weeks before the presidential election in which the Republican will face Kamala Harris, the vice president and Democratic candidate, Trump’s proposals could accelerate this process and deplete its funds by 2031.
The Social Security Trust Fund is the U.S. account from which benefits such as retirement and disability benefits are paid.
According to the organization, although both Trump and Harris have promised during the campaign to protect Social Security, neither has presented plans to reverse the bankruptcy.
The bill also adds that the general cut in benefits would be increased to 33% by 2035, ten points more than recommended, and that the annual Social Security deficit would increase by 50% by that same year.
The committee said Trump’s proposal to end the taxes that Social Security beneficiaries must pay to receive these benefits would have the greatest impact, as it could cost almost a trillion dollars over the next ten years.
Among Harris’ proposals, the report highlights that increased border security and the extension of some parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would also increase the debt.
However, they believe that this increase could be offset by their idea of raising the minimum wage and other fiscal measures.
Harris’s bill would not stop insolvency, but would only bring it forward by “several weeks or months.”
The Committee insists that the president who is sworn in next January must put more money into the fund, or spend less, if he wants to avoid cuts in benefits in the face of the ten-year countdown, when they predict insolvency. EFE
