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Joint Economic Committee Democrats
Social Security Charts
Chart 3.2
Last updated 7/6/06
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The cumulative Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years is 0.7 percent of cumulative GDP according to the 2006 Social Security Trustees’ Report. It is 0.5 percent of GDP based on 2006 estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
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To put that in perspective, the 75-year cost of making the Administration’s 2001-2003 tax cuts permanent is about 2 percent of GDP. That is three to four times the size of the Social Security shortfall.
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The Trustees' Report also provides an estimate of 1.3 percent of GDP for the size of the projected shortfall over an infinite horizon. The American Academy of Actuaries has said that estimates over an infinite future are misleading and make the financial condition of Social Security appear worse than it is.
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