Social Security’s coming crisis quantified: $20.5 trillion
The $20.5 trillion fiscal gap separating Social Security's liabilities and assets -- its unfunded liability -- is enormous; it is 1.4 times U.S. gross domestic product and 34 times annual Social Security taxes.
Now that health care is off the front burner, it's time to fix Social Security. Social Security's trustees say the system needs only “modest changes.” In fact, the system is desperately broke.
The proof is buried deep in the trustees' own 2012 report in a complex table, numbered IV.B6
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