Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment

摘要

Compared with public pension systems in other industrial countries, the social security system in the United States has been unusually stable for more than a quarter century. The last notable overhaul of the system occurred in 1983 when the Old-Age Insurance program was unable to pay for all scheduled retirement benefits out of the payroll tax that was earmarked for this purpose. The U.S. Congress permitted retirement benefits to be paid temporarily with funds borrowed from other government trust funds, and the medium- and long-term funding shortfall was remedied with a combination of tax increases, a temporary suspension of the cost-of-living adjustment, and a gradual increase in the age of entitlement for full retirement benefits.