Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on Aug. 14, 1935, making today Social Security’s 90th birthday. While the system is arguably the most successful government program in our nation’s history, lifting hundreds of millions of seniors out of poverty, it has also become one of the main drivers of our federal deficits, with the program’s trust fund set to expire in 2033. If Congress does not act, Social Security will look quite different by the time it turns 100.

Since payroll tax collections for Social Security began in 1937, and the first benefits payment was not made until 1940, the program’s first 40 years produced a surplus captured by the Social Security Trust Fund, which was created by the Social Security Amendments of 1939.