文档介绍：Hungerford
SOCIAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS
A Better Way to Invest the
Social Security Trust Fund
Thomas Hungerford
Our first article on novel solutions for social security
involves investing the current surplus in higher
e securities. The author has an intriguing
proposition.
HE SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAM is one of the most popular and
essful government programs in the United States. The Old-
TAge, Survivors and Disability Insurance program (OASDI), the
formal name for social security, has paid monthly benefits to retirees
and their family members since 1940 and to disabled workers and their
family members since 1957. The program is credited with dramatically
reducing old-age dependency and poverty among the elderly.
In fiscal year 2005, social security paid $ billion in benefits to
recipients and collected $ billion in contributions from work-
ers, their employers, and the self-employed. By the end of 2005, the
OASDI Trust Fund held over $ trillion in federal government bonds
THOMAS HUNGERFORD is an economist at the Congressional Research Service. The author
thanks the AARP for funding this research, and Kelly Olsen ments on an earlier draft. Any
remaining errors are the responsibility of the author. The views expressed here are his own and do
not reflect the views of AARP, the Congressional Research Service, or the Library of Congress.
Challenge, vol. 49, no. 3, May/June 2006, pp. 90–104.
© 2006 . Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved.
90 Challenge/May–June 2006 ISSN 0577–5132 / 2006 $ + .
A Better Way to Invest the Social Security Trust Fund
and notes. However, the social security trustees project that the trust
funds will be depleted in 2041, and after that, tax revenue will cover
only about 72 percent of promised benefits. In his fiscal year 2007
budget message, President Bush advocated “comprehensive reform of
social security for future generations, so that we return the system to
firm financial footing.” Perusa