Trustees' Report: Women Can Count on Social Security

Today, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report on Social Security's financial condition. It's a report of particular significance for women, because Social Security is women's security all across the country.

Women of all ages count on Social Security to provide the foundation of their retirement security, and life and disability insurance for themselves and their families. And the latest report from the Social Security shows, once again, that they can continue to do so.

Yet some politicians and some in the media claim that Social Security is in crisis. Why say it if it isn't true? Because Americans strongly support Social Security – and the only way they might stand for proposals to slash benefits or privatize Social Security is if they believed there was a crisis.

So here are the facts, from the just-released 2011 Social Security Trustees' Report:

• Social Security can pay 100 percent of promised benefits until 2036.
• After that, even with no changes, Social Security can pay 77 percent of promised benefits from payroll taxes that will continue to be paid to Social Security.
• The balance in the Social Security Trust Fund, held in interest-bearing U.S. Treasury bonds, exceeds $2.6 trillion.
• Social Security ran a surplus in 2010, taking in more in combined payroll taxes and interest income than it paid out in benefits. Indeed, the Trust Fund will continue to grow until 2023, when the bonds will start to be redeemed to pay full benefits.

Yes, there's a long-term shortfall in Social Security. And it would be better to take action sooner than later to close the shortfall and improve the adequacy of benefits which average just $12,000 per year for women 65 and older.

Instead of considering proposals to cut Social Security – either explicitly, by raising the retirement age, changing the benefit formula, or reducing the cost-of-living adjustment – or by enacting an overall federal spending cap that would force cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, policy makers should consider ways to strengthen and improve it. This could be achieved by strengthening the economy and asking those with the greatest ability to contribute more to Social Security. Indeed, the cost of closing the long-term shortfall in Social Security is about the same as extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent Americans.