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President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Thursday honoring the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act of 1935. Before doing so, he touted what he sees as the keeping of his promise to preserve and protect the program and to lower taxes for seniors who receive Social Security benefits.
Since 1935, Social Security has become the most popular and relied-upon federal safety net program. Roughly 70 million people are currently receiving checks from Social Security, of which the vast majority are retired workers.
“Today, we celebrate that 90th anniversary of one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever signed into law, the Social Security Act of 1935. And we’re going to make it stronger, bigger and better. … During the campaign, I made a (pledge) to our seniors that I would always protect Social Security, and under this administration, we’re keeping that promise and strengthening Social Security for generations to come,” Trump said.
But in citing what he said were his administration’s successes, Trump made some false and exaggerated or unverifiable claims. Among them:
Trump said that because of his mega tax-and-spending-cuts package, which he signed into law on July 4, “I allowed no tax on Social Security for our seniors.” And the White House in a separate statement asserted that “the vast majority of seniors receiving Social Security will no longer pay taxes on that income.”
That is not the case. What his package did do was give senior citizens an additional $6,000 deduction on their federal income taxes between 2025 and 2028. Joint filers get twice that amount.
But the beefed-up deduction will benefit less than half of older Americans, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Those who will benefit the most are seniors earning between roughly $80,000 and $130,000. The provision will reduce their taxes by $1,100, on average, or about 1% of their after-tax income, according to the analysis.
In praising the accomplishments of Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who was standing next to the president for the proclamation signing, Trump said that while the media has reported that the program was going to “go bust” in less than a decade, “Not anymore it’s not.”
But in fact, the program still faces the prospect of not being able to pay 100% of promised benefits by 2034 in the retirement and disability programs if lawmakers don’t act to address the pending shortfall, according to the latest annual report from Social Security’s trustees. By that point, unless changes to the system are made, payroll tax revenue and other income sources will only be able to cover 81% of scheduled benefits.
And with the estimated reduction in tax revenue from Trump’s One Big Beautful Bill Act, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the insolvency date will now be a year or two earlier.
There are several longstanding reasons for the funding shortfall, including demographics and other spending and tax legislation passed under Republican and Democratic administrations. But, to close that gap, lawmakers (as they’ve known for years) will need to come up with a package of fixes that may include raising more in Social Security taxes, raising the retirement age, changing the formula to reduce the amount of initial benefits a person receives at retirement, and changing how benefits are annually adjusted for cost of living, according to CRFB.
Trump praised Bisignano’s efforts to improve Social Security services by asserting that the agency has shortened call wait times, reduced the disability claims backlog and promoted seniors’ online account access.
The commissioner, who said Thursday his aim is to make the Social Security Administration a “digital first” agency and by the end of next year have 200 million Americans signed up to online Social Security accounts, has promised to improve customer service, particularly over the telephone and through artificial intelligence, and to push more people to the program’s website.
Bisignano has touted improved metrics, but the agency has reduced the number of performance indicators it posts publicly, making comparisons difficult. Based on the statistics that are currently available, they show that less than half of calls (47.1%) are answered within two hours.
And the Social Security Administration also recently proposed a change that potentially could make it harder for seniors to interact with the agency – including changing how they verify their identity. In response to concerns by advocacy groups like AARP, the agency has amended its proposal.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren last month asked the Social Security’s inspector general to audit the agency’s customer service efforts in the wake of its shedding roughly 7,000 employees and implementing a new AI tool on its national 800 number.
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