Happy 90th Birthday!

Cut, Bruised, Misunderstood; And Still Standing!

Turning 90-years-old is no joke, and lately my dear friend, you appear slightly worse for the wear. The cuts are deep and when the wounds heal; there will be scars. Maybe what is worse are the (as yet, unfounded) allegations of wrongdoing including fraud and abuse. I am sorry you’re being maligned, but let’s put this behind us for a few days to celebrate! Happy Birthday to Social Security!

April 2025— 73.9M people received benefits from at least one of SSA’s programs.

I wanted to personally say thanks for being the biggest part of my retirement income. Being one of the fortunate ones to have pension benefits, as well, you are the only asset in my retirement portfolio with a COLA (cost of living allowance). I wrote to both of my U.S. Senators about you recently. Todd Young’s office responded already. My concern is about insuring the Consumer Price Index integrity is maintained since that is the basis for calculating the COLA and focusing on the trust fund shortfall.

7,000 employees supporting you left the government workforce as of June 30, 2025. At the moment, I don’t have any questions or problems—it scares me when I think about future issues. Now, the reduction in force leaves a ratio of SSA employees to beneficiaries at 1:1,480. I’m an optimist, and even I smell worker burnout brewing.

Beneficiaries are rising while workers serving them are declining. Employees are going to be replaced by “technology” that has not been designed, implemented or deployed. SSA systems run on antiquated COBOL-based mainframes.

Close to 2,000 people who left were in SSA field offices. The office closest to me was so helpful, I did a 5-star YELP review about them. They saved me a lot of grief when my HR department completed their section of an SSA form incorrectly. (No shade to HR. It was the first time he had ever had to complete the form.)

Why Am I Concerned?

This may sound selfish, but I think there’s a chance I could live a fairly long healthy life. I would also like to see my younger family members benefit from contributions to you. Currently employees pay 6.2% towards SSA on the first $176,000 they earn (for 2025). The self-employed pay 12.4% to fund you because a company doesn’t match. With 10,000 Americans turning 65 daily and living longer; there’s stress on the system.

My second area of deep concern is your Trust Fund shortfall. I read about it on the SSA website (because I am a nerd) https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/. Then I attended AARP’s 2024 virtual Social Security Townhall and it was confirmed. When I am 76 years old, you are going to reduce my monthly benefit by 23 percent!!

“The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will be able to pay 100 percent of total scheduled benefits until 2033, unchanged from last year’s report. At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 77 percent of total scheduled benefits.”

Why aren’t people talking about this? And, who is working on doing something about shoring up your Trust Fund? I checked on that too. About a dozen members of Congress are working on “proposals.” So, yeah, I am dismayed. TBH, I am tee’d off about it. I wrote to the Committee Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee Chair in the Spring. Crickets!

AARP is recognizing your birthday (August 14th) across the country! It is a celebration, and an invitation to learn more. I’ll be at your Indianapolis’ birthday event. It is free. Thursday, Aug 14, 2025, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monument Circle Indianapolis, IN 46204 (And the cupcake truck is going to be there!)

Register: https://events.aarp.org/xez0WX?sms=7&cn=-WqNYJzMQ0mReRdjx7kRfA

It may be a bittersweet birthday celebration this year, but there are “boots on the ground” working on this!

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Maya Angelou