Congress is sleepwalking into a Social Security crisis

There will never be a convenient time to address Social Security. Waiting only guarantees that the solutions available tomorrow will be harder than the ones available today. Social Security is an American promise, and Congress seems unmotivated or unwilling to do the hard work required to keep it.

The program’s finances are deteriorating, and according to the program’s trustees, if Congress fails to act, the program will be unable to pay full scheduled benefits within six short years, triggering an automatic 22% reduction in benefits or requiring massive tax hikes on working Americans with little to no warning. When that happens, the poverty rate among elderly Americans increases by 50%.