Social Security could pay full benefits until 2059 if taxable payroll kept pace with GDP: AARP report
A new AARP Public Policy Institute report finds Social Security's taxable payroll has fallen from 41% of GDP in 1983 to 34%, and says full benefits could last until 2059 — 25 years beyond the trustees' projected 2034 depletion — had payroll tax revenue kept pace with GDP. Richard Johnson, the report's author, says the program's finances weakened because the economy changed while its revenue system did not, and that the fix is rebuilding revenue rather than cutting earned benefits; the trustees project 83% of benefits would be payable absent congressional action.
