📋 AARP Launches Social Security 90th Anniversary Countdown (AARP Article/Advocacy)

[SpringIsHereVA]

FROM THE ARTICLE:

As it turns 90, the program ‘matters more than ever,’ CEO says.

By Andy Markowitz, AARP. Published May 14, 2025.

Few things reach as broadly into American life as Social Security.

Some 69.4 million people — about 1 in 5 U.S. residents — received a payment from the program in April 2025. Most of them are retired older adults, many reliant on their earned benefits to put food on the table and pay the bills. Almost every working American pays into the system via payroll taxes, with the promise that Social Security will be there for them, too, when they need it.

USE THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE:

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2025/social-security-milestone-90-years.html

[GailL1]

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," JFK

Yea, Happy #90  Birthday, Social Security - hope you make it to 100.

Where has AARP been for the last 20 years as the Trust Funds balance has dwindled?

 Where now is the urgency to punch Congress for action as the Social Security balance sheet continues it’s downward spiral?

What stance is the organization taking on the Social Security Tax on Benefits which is adding over 50 BILLION to the Trust Funds coffers presently?

What stance did the AARP take on the elimination of the WEP/GPO under the Social Security Fairness Act that passed at the end of last year - why not a fairer adjustment in the deduction rather than a complete elimination - with the elimination costing the program over 200 BILLION over (10) years - and personally, I don’t think they considered all the cost because they didn’t realize how many were out there that never filed.

Where is the organization gonna stand when Congress finally takes this insolvency on and some of the changes are gonna be difficult but necessary.  

Every year that we wait to do something about this financial problem of the Social Security Trust Fund, the more drastic any reform measures will be.  That has been documented in every annual Social Security Trustee Report since 2010.

SSA.gov 2024 Trustee Report Summary - Letter to the Public 

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, unchanged from last year's report. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits.

If the OASI Trust Fund and the DI Trust Fund projections are combined, the resulting projected fund (designated OASDI) would be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2035, one year later than reported last year. At that time, the projected fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing total fund income will be sufficient to pay 83 percent of scheduled benefits. (The two funds could not actually be combined unless there were a change in the law, but the combined projection of the two funds is frequently used to indicate the overall status of the Social Security program.)

. . . . Lawmakers have many options for changes that would reduce or eliminate the long-term financing shortfalls. Taking action sooner rather than later will allow consideration of a broader range of solutions and provide more time to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.

Then there is the matters of:

• Medicare Part A - Hospital Trust Fund - also stressed financially.
• The SMI Trust Fund or Part B Medicare and keeping the premiums we pay into this system from going thru the roof.

Just saying, but it seems that AARP should let us know their priorities here.  I would like to know and I bet others would also like to know how they think Congress should proceed in this reform.