====== Social Security ======

Social Security is a federal social insurance program in the United States, established by the Social Security Act of 1935 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the [[new-deal|New Deal]]. It provides retirement income, disability benefits, and survivor benefits to eligible workers and their dependents, funded primarily through payroll taxes levied on employees and employers under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). As of 2025, it covers nearly all American workers and is the largest single program in the federal budget.

===== Overview =====

The program is administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), an independent federal agency. Benefits are calculated based on a worker's earnings history, with higher lifetime earners receiving higher nominal benefits, though the formula is progressive - lower earners receive a higher percentage of their pre-retirement income as a replacement rate. The full retirement age has been gradually raised from 65 to 67 for those born after 1960. Workers may claim reduced benefits as early as age 62 or delayed, higher benefits up to age 70.

Social Security is funded on a pay-as-you-go basis: current payroll taxes fund current beneficiaries, with surpluses historically deposited into the Social Security Trust Fund, which holds U.S. Treasury securities. The program does not operate as a personal savings account; individual benefits are not directly tied to individual contributions. The [[social-security-history|program's history]] includes multiple legislative reforms, most significantly the 1983 amendments negotiated under the Greenspan Commission, which raised the retirement age, taxed a portion of benefits, and shored up the fund's near-term solvency.

The program faces a long-term financing gap. According to the Social Security Administration's 2026 Trustees Report, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund is projected to be depleted in late 2032, at which point incoming revenues would cover approximately 78% of scheduled retirement benefits. If the OASI and Disability Insurance trust funds are considered together, depletion is projected for the third quarter of 2034, at which point revenues would cover approximately 83% of scheduled benefits. This shortfall has generated significant policy debate about potential remedies, including benefit adjustments, tax increases, structural reform, or some combination. See the [[social-security-debate|Social Security Debate]] page for competing proposals.

===== Consensus Status =====

There is broad [[social-security-economic-consensus|actuarial and economic consensus]] on the existence of a long-term financing shortfall and its approximate magnitude, based on demographic trends including an aging population and declining worker-to-beneficiary ratios. There is no comparable consensus on the appropriate policy response. The program's foundational design - whether it functions as insurance, an entitlement, a welfare program, or a forced savings mechanism - is itself contested across viewpoints.

===== Viewpoints =====

**[[social-security-liberal-defense-viewpoint|Liberal/Progressive Defense]]:** Proponents argue Social Security is a successful and essential anti-poverty program that provides a guaranteed income floor for retirees and disabled workers, and that it should be strengthened by lifting or eliminating the payroll tax cap on high earners rather than reducing benefits.

**[[social-security-fiscal-reform-viewpoint|Fiscal Conservative Reform]]:** Some conservatives and deficit hawks accept the program's basic structure but argue that benefits must be adjusted - through means-testing, raising the retirement age, or changing the cost-of-living adjustment formula - to maintain long-term solvency without perpetual tax increases.

**[[social-security-libertarian-privatization-viewpoint|Libertarian/Market Privatization]]:** Libertarians and some free-market economists argue the program represents a poor return on investment for workers compared to private alternatives, crowds out personal savings, and that partial or full privatization - allowing workers to direct payroll contributions to personal accounts - would be economically superior and more consistent with individual liberty.

**[[social-security-populist-preservation-viewpoint|Populist Preservation]]:** Some on the political right, particularly in the national populist tradition, oppose benefit cuts as a betrayal of the working-class constituency that relies on the program, and argue Social Security's core promise should be honored without means-testing or structural reform.

===== Related Pages =====

  * [[social-security-history|Social Security - History]]
  * [[social-security-debate|Social Security - Debate]]
  * [[social-security-economic-consensus|Social Security - Economic Consensus]]
  * [[new-deal|New Deal]]
  * [[medicare|Medicare]]
  * [[medicaid|Medicaid]]
  * [[federal-budget|Federal Budget]]
  * [[entitlement-reform|Entitlement Reform]]

===== Footnotes =====

  - Social Security Administration. //Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds//. 2026. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/tr/2026/
  - Social Security Act of 1935, Pub. L. 74-271, 49 Stat. 620 (1935).
  - Social Security Amendments of 1983, Pub. L. 98-21, 97 Stat. 65 (1983).
  - Social Security Administration. "How Social Security Benefits Are Computed." SSA Publication No. 13-11785. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/ran5/an2003-5.html
  - Internal Revenue Code § 3101 et seq. (Federal Insurance Contributions Act).