Projections dispute Social Security crisis (Thomma / Knight Ridder)

[struggle4progress]

<snip> Even without a single change, the checks will continue to go out as scheduled at least until 2042, perhaps 2052. Even then, the system could afford to pay 73 percent of benefits. Under one of three projections envisioned by the trustees who run the program, it could even afford to keep paying full benefits and start amassing a big surplus.

``There is no crisis now,'' said Bernard Wasow, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a Washington think tank that opposes Bush's plans. ``The system is scheduled to keep building up reserves for the next 14 years and is not expected to exhaust its savings until somewhere between 2042 and 2052. Most people would hardly call that a crisis.''

Indeed, the Social Security system is continuing to collect more in taxes now than it pays out in benefits. That ends in 2018, when the program starts paying out more in benefits to a retiring baby boom generation than it collects in taxes. But it then will start cashing in $1.5 trillion in Treasury bonds it holds and thus will still be able to pay full benefits until sometime between 2042 and 2052. <snip>

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