More than a decade ago, President George W. Bush set out to fix what he called a broken Social Security system. In 2001, intermediate projections had shown the retirement trust fund would be exhausted in 2040. By 2005, finances had improved and the projected exhaustion date was 2043. But today, exhaustion looms closer, only two decades away in 2035.

Bush wanted to modernize Social Security and ensure its fiscal integrity, but without raising taxes cutting benefits for current or near-retirees, or investing Social Security funds directly in the stock market. To achieve this goal, Bush convened a bipartisan Commission to Strengthen Social Security.