Geithner Breaks the Bad News About Social Security

According to new estimates, the Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2037, four years earlier than previously reported.  The trust fund reflects $2.4 trillion that have been borrowed and spent by the federal government.  As demand for benefits continues to increase, growing unemployment means that fewer dollars are flowing into the trust fund.

In only a few years, the Social Security trustees expect that the balance between money taken in and money paid out will tip.  By 2016, money paid into Social Security will be insufficient to cover current benefits.   At that point, the federal government must begin to repay, with interest, the trillions of dollars it has borrowed from the trust fund.

Remember the Youtube video where the federal budget is represented by $100 in pennies?  Imagine what it will look like when the government finally has to pay back social security.