From Marketwatch:
… According to the just-released analysis, Social Security’s Old Age and Survivor Insurance (OASI) trust fund will remain solvent a year longer than previously thought. This is the trust fund from which Social Security benefits are paid. …
This new analysis was produced by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the non-partisan agency that analyzes the budget impact of various legislative proposals. To put its findings in context, it’s helpful to remember that every year the office of Social Security’s chief actuary updates its assessment of the OASI trust fund’s solvency. Its annual report typically is released in the spring.
No such report has been forthcoming this year, however. In an email, the chief actuary’s office told me that the decision about when to release its annual report is not theirs to make but instead is made by the U.S. Treasury Department. An email earlier this summer to that department asking for when this report will be forthcoming went unanswered. …
Anyone want to speculate on why Treasury is holding this up?
Speculation 1: Covid has forced many employees out of offices, and into their homes, therefore reducing the staff needed to release report. Speculation 2: They spent the last few+ months sorting through what was left of the Saul mess. Speculation 3: They have a "We'll do it on our time, we're very busy and short staffed." approach. Speculation 4: They just don't care. I sincerely hope it's not the latter.
ReplyDeleteLast week you noted that 400,000 more beneficiaries died in 2020 over 2019 and that the SDC estimated that 375,000 of these deaths were Covid related.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the CBO took into account the reduced number of beneficiaries going forward stemming from Covid and the effect of that on the Trust Fund as well as the possible, but by no means certain, increased costs from auxiliary benefits for those who died and possible disability payments for those with long term Covid related health issues.