Republicans said the report, which also found that Medicare’s trust fund would be exhausted in 2024, confirmed that the entitlement programs required swift attention.
In his statement on next week’s hearing, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), the chairman of Ways and Means’s Social Security subcommittee, said “Americans want, need and deserve a Social Security program they can count on and a fact-based conservation about how to get there. This hearing will begin that conversation.”
{mosads}For their part, Democrats have said the trustees report showed the programs were on solid footing. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), the Social Security subcommittee’s ranking member, said the report “confirms what we already know: Social Security will weather the storm once again.”
The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has also said that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on the top 2 percent of earners would all but cover Social Security’s shortfall over the next 75 years.