Long-Term Social Security Shortfall Smaller Than Cost of Extending Tax Cuts for Top 1 Percent

Publication Date: March 2008

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Kris Cox; Richard Kogan

Research Area: Banking and finance; Social conditions

Keywords: Economic projections; Fiscal future; Senior citizen; Tax code

Type: Report

Abstract:

The Social Security trustees' report issued on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 estimates that Social Security faces a total shortfall over the next 75 years of 0.56 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is slightly less than the estimated cost over that same period of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts just for the top 1 percent of households: 0.6 percent of GDP. (Currently, households in the top 1 percent make more than $450,000 per year.)