Defaulting on the Social Security Trust Fund: What It Would Mean, and How It Would Be Done

March 09, 2005

Alan Barber

March 2005, Dean Baker

Some policymakers have asserted that the Social Security program will begin to face serious problems in 2018. This paper shows that the date would only pose a problem if the U.S. government were to default on the bonds held by the Social Security trust fund.

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