WASHINGTON -- Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in bleaker-than-previous estimates.The massive retirement program has been suffering from the effects of the struggling economy for several years. It first went into deficit last year but had been projected to post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into the red in 2016.
With the revised update of a permanent deficit, expect the fund to dry up in a shorter time as more boomers "retire".
This year alone, Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in retirement, disability and survivors' benefits than it collects in payroll taxes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. That figure nearly triples -- to $130 billion -- when the new one-year cut in payroll taxes is included.
Congress has promised to replenish any lost revenue from the tax cut, but that's hardly good news, either, adding to the federal budget deficit. In another sobering estimate, the congressional office said government red ink this year will increase to $1.5 trillion, the most in U.S. history.
So basically, you retire on Social Security, you are fucked. If you have/had a 401k, you are fucked. If you want to put money away in a bank with the FDCC going broke and the bank goes belly up, you are fucked. I'm going for the "stuffing it in a mattress and hope the house doesn't burn down or I get robbed" strategy.