2005-1-27
I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Economics
Report.
The Social Security system in the United States provides monthly
payments to retired people and the disabled. Most of the money comes
from a wage tax paid by workers and employers.
For now, Social Security collects more money than it pays out.
The surplus goes into a trust fund for workers who will retire in
the future. But the future will have more retirees and fewer workers
to support them. Last June, the Congressional Budget Office said
Social Security is expected to have a deficit beginning in two
thousand nineteen.
President Bush says "now is the time to act." On Wednesday, at
the first news conference of his second term, he said the program
will be out of money in two thousand forty-two. Mister Bush wants
Congress to make changes. But there is intense debate about how much
fixing this popular program needs.
Social Security was born out of the Great Depression. Poverty
spread during this period from nineteen twenty-nine to the beginning
of World War Two. Many leaders spoke of creating a system to
guarantee payments to the disabled and the retired. Critics called
it socialism.
Some states created their own plans. President Franklin Roosevelt
wanted a national system that could pay for itself. He proposed the
Social Security Act in January of nineteen thirty-five.
Congress passed the law that year. But payments did not start
until nineteen forty. Until then, money gathered in the trust fund
so the program could start with a surplus.
At first, Social Security was meant to provide a small amount of
money to retired industrial workers. In time, other jobs were added.
The government also offered benefits to people who survived the
death of someone on Social Security.
In nineteen sixty-five, President Lyndon Johnson and Congress
added two programs to offer medical benefits. Medicare, for older
Americans, and Medicaid, for the poor, are no longer under the
Social Security Administration.
In nineteen eighty-three, Social Security faced a deficit.
Congress agreed to increase the retirement age and Social Security
taxes. Lawmakers also required all federal workers to be in the
system. These changes were meant to fix the system for seventy-five
years, until around two thousand sixty.
Next week, we look at the current debate about the future of
Social Security.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario
Ritter. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.