The Trustees of the Social Security system have just issued the 2008 projections for the system over the next 75 years. The report contains two surprises. First, the 75-year deficit dropped to 1.70 percent of taxable payrolls from the roughly 2 percent it has been for the last 14 years. The decline was driven primarily by a change in the way Social Security projects immigration. Although the Trustees still project that the trust fund will be exhausted in 2041, the improved outlook enables scheduled payroll taxes to cover more than three-quarters of promised benefits after that point. The second noteworthy difference between this report and earlier ones is that it has not been signed by any public trustees. But this omission reflects a failure with the political process, not with the program itself.So why did all of those public trustees refuse to sign the report? It sounds like they did not want to associate themselves with a pitch for privatization, particularly at a time when Social Security's long term financing looks better and better.
Mar 25, 2008
Another Take On Trustees Report
From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:
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There are only 6 Trustees. The Secretaries of HHS, DOL and the Treasury plus the Commissioner of SSA are the 4 agency members. Then there are 2 public trustees - private citizens nominated by the President, one Dem and one GOP. The President has failed to nominate the two candidates, so there weren't any public trustees to sign this year's report. No one actually "refused" to sign.
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