Smart Trade Insights
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Investing
  • Politics
Top Posts
Basin Energy
Altech Batteries LtdCERENERGY Battery 46.7M Euro German Grant...
Altech – CERENERGY Battery 46.7M Euro German Grant...
Locksley Resources LimitedStrengthens Leadership to Accelerate Growth Strategy
Earthwise Advertising & Investor Awareness Campaign
Commencement of Henbury Field Program
RCM to Acquire Webbs Consol Silver Project from...
Earthwise Advertising & Investor Awareness Campaign
Crypto Market Update: Stablecoins Top US$283 Billion in...
Tech 5: NVIDIA Results Rattle Investors, Trump Signals...
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Investing
  • Politics

Smart Trade Insights

Politics

Trump proposals could drain Social Security in 6 years, budget group says

by admin October 21, 2024
October 21, 2024
Trump proposals could drain Social Security in 6 years, budget group says

A new report projects that the Social Security Trust Fund might run out of money within six years under a Donald Trump presidency, while Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposed policies would not meaningfully change the current trajectory.

Social Security faces a looming funding crisis in an aging country, with trustees most recently predicting that the retirement and disability program’s trust fund will become insolvent in 2035. Many of Trump’s campaign proposals would accelerate that timeline, potentially by years, said the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that opposes large federal deficits.

In a report released Monday, the organization concluded that many of Trump’s proposed second-term agenda items all work in the same direction when it comes to the Social Security Trust Fund. The budget group did not produce a similar report on Harris’s policies because they would have a negligible effect measured only in weeks or months rather than years, said Marc Goldwein, CRFB’s senior policy director.

Compared to prior presidential campaigns, Goldwein said, “I can’t think of anything that would be this order of magnitude” in its detrimental effect on Social Security’s bottom line compared to the policies Trump has proposed.

Most directly, Trump has promised that no Social Security recipients should have to pay federal income taxes on their benefits. Under current law, 40 percent of beneficiaries pay taxes on some portion of their Social Security. The tax they pay on their benefits goes directly back to the trust fund, and getting rid of it could cost the program almost $1 trillion over 10 years, the report forecast.

Other Trump policies might have indirect effects. Trump’s pledge to deport millions of undocumented workers could cost the trust fund hundreds of millions of dollars, the CRFB said. Many undocumented immigrants have payroll taxes taken out of their paychecks for the Social Security Trust Fund, but never become eligible to claim benefits, so they are a net positive for the program.

Trump’s proposed high tariffs on all imports could affect the economy in several ways detrimental to Social Security’s financial health, CRFB said. If the tariffs drive high inflation as projected by Wall Street experts, Social Security will have to pay out more in benefits because of automatic cost-of-living adjustments based on inflation.

The report also pointed to Trump’s promises not to tax tip income or income earned during overtime hours. Trump has not clarified whether he means to exempt them from federal income taxes only or also from taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. If he means the latter, that could cost Social Security $150 million to more than $1 trillion over a decade, with the likely outcome on the very high end of that range, CRFB said.

All added up, the report forecasts that Social Security under Trump would hit the point where by law it must cut benefits in 2031 or 2032. And unless Congress changes the law that triggers the automatic cuts, the size of the cut to benefits would rise, from a current projection of a 23 percent reduction for all Social Security checks to a predicted cut of about 33 percent.

Both Trump and Harris have said they aim to protect Social Security to prevent cuts if elected, but neither candidate has offered a comprehensive plan to plug the current projected gap. Stabilizing the trust fund will require either raising more money or spending less money in some way, or a combination of the two.

Trump has talked of raising more money by drilling for oil on federal lands and has claimed that undocumented immigrants receiving benefits has led to Social Security’s problems, a view rejected by experts who point out that immigrants pay more into the program than they receive.

Harris supports a plan to raise some of the money by imposing payroll taxes on income above $400,000; currently, workers stop paying Social Security taxes after their first $168,000 in annual income.

This post appeared first on washingtonpost.com

previous post
Taroom Gas Infrastructure MOU Signed with AGIG
next post
Harris has a huge cash advantage over Trump, but polls remain tight

You may also like

To bash immigration, JD Vance bashes America’s economic...

September 13, 2024

Fact-checking Day 3 of the 2024 Democratic National...

August 22, 2024

From democracy to freedom: How Kamala Harris shifted...

August 21, 2024

Trump delivers profanity, below-the-belt digs at Catholic charity...

October 18, 2024

Man arrested outside Trump event in Calif. over...

October 14, 2024

Harris’s whirlwind, high-pressure VP process that landed on...

August 7, 2024

Motivation to vote surged among women after Harris...

October 12, 2024

Harris is running a much bigger campaign than...

October 6, 2024

Republicans flee from abortion restrictions in final weeks...

October 5, 2024

Trump rants, resurfaces sexual assault allegations for 49...

September 7, 2024

    Fill Out & Get More Relevant News


    Stay ahead of the market and unlock exclusive trading insights & timely news. We value your privacy - your information is secure, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Gain an edge with hand-picked trading opportunities, stay informed with market-moving updates, and learn from expert tips & strategies.

    Recent Posts

    • Basin Energy

      September 2, 2025
    • Altech Batteries LtdCERENERGY Battery 46.7M Euro German Grant Approval

      September 2, 2025
    • Altech – CERENERGY Battery 46.7M Euro German Grant Approval

      September 2, 2025
    • Locksley Resources LimitedStrengthens Leadership to Accelerate Growth Strategy

      September 2, 2025
    • Earthwise Advertising & Investor Awareness Campaign

      September 1, 2025
    Promotion Image

    banner ads

    Categories

    • Business (842)
    • Economy (829)
    • Investing (2,734)
    • Politics (737)
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: smarttradeinsights.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.


    Copyright © 2025 smarttradeinsights.com | All Rights Reserved