Previously we have informed that members of Congress have been contemplating what to do about the impending shortfall to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund which is expected to be exhausted by the end of 2016. At that time, if nothing is done to shore up the disability trust fund, disability beneficiaries can expect their disability checks to be about 19 percent less.
The easy solution, something the Democrats and President Barack Obama have proposed, would be to transfer money from the Social Security Retirement trust fund, which is expected to be exhausted by 2034, to the SSDI trust fund. Obviously this is not a permanent fix, but Congress has been transferring money between the two trust funds for decades without much notice. Of course, the Republicans in Congress are now squawking at this notion and have announced intentions to revamp the entire SSDI program by concentrating on the fraud and corruption within the SSDI program. Unfortunately for the Republicans, there has been very little fraud or corruption identified with the program, so that is not really going to fix the problem either.
With 2016 on the horizon, there seems to be little chance that Congress can take drastic steps to revamp Social Security’s funding gaps and President Obama will not allow Republicans to gut the SSDI program in an effort to curry support from the right wing faction of the party.
Congress should approve transferring funds from the Social Security Retirement trust fund to the SSDI trust fund to sustain it for a few more years to come. Obviously this would probably shorten the Retirement trust fund’s viability before 2034, but concrete solutions to both trust funds will be needed before too long anyway.
In Congress, cooler heads usually prevail at the midnight hour, which will probably happen again. The concrete changes will probably have to wait for a new president and of course bipartisan cooperation will be needed, which is a monumental task for Congress.
