President Donald Trump made a big promise during his 2024 campaign — to protect Social Security. Since taking office, he’s been taking steps to cut administrative costs through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hoping to make the program more sustainable.
These cuts include reducing staff, ending some building leases, trimming IT contracts, and scaling back on other overheads. Altogether, they’re expected to save about $800 million every year.
It sounds like a positive move, especially since Social Security is facing a financial crisis. Millions of Americans rely on this program for their monthly income.
And if nothing is done, everyone receiving Social Security may soon face benefit cuts. So any cost-saving measure may seem like a step in the right direction.
But here’s the reality: $800 million isn’t nearly enough.
The core issue with Social Security isn’t wasteful spending or fraud. It’s a deeper, more long-term problem. America’s population is aging. As baby boomers retire and live longer, more money goes out in benefits every year.
At the same time, fewer young people are entering the workforce. This means fewer people are paying into the system through payroll taxes.
This imbalance — more people collecting benefits, fewer people paying in — has been growing for years. As a result, Social Security has been spending more than it collects. The trust fund, which holds extra revenue from past years, is shrinking fast.
Experts say it will run out by 2033. After that, Social Security will only be able to pay 79% of promised benefits using just the income it collects from taxes.
This issue has been known for decades. The Social Security trustees have been warning Congress since the 1990s. But lawmakers haven’t acted. They’ve delayed making hard decisions, hoping someone else would fix the problem later.
President Trump’s attempt to save $800 million through administrative cuts will barely make a dent in the problem. In 2025, the Social Security program is expected to run a deficit of around $180.7 billion.
These cuts would only reduce that number slightly, to around $180 billion. In the big picture, that’s a very small change. And the annual deficit is only expected to get worse, potentially doubling by 2032.
To protect Social Security, bigger steps are needed — and they won’t be easy or popular.
There are a few ways to fix the situation, but none of them involve just reducing office expenses or cutting down on fraud.
The real solutions involve raising taxes, cutting benefits, or a combination of both. These are not popular ideas, and Trump has publicly said he wouldn’t support them. But without these kinds of changes, Social Security could face forced cuts in benefits anyway.
For example, cutting benefits could mean raising the full retirement age, giving smaller payouts to people who retire early, or adjusting how much extra people get for delaying retirement.
On the other hand, raising taxes might mean increasing payroll tax rates or raising the cap on taxable income, so high earners contribute more.
Trump has even proposed removing taxes on Social Security benefits, which would reduce one of the program’s income sources.
That move would mostly help wealthier retirees and could increase the pressure on younger workers to fund the system.
In the end, the truth is clear: small cuts to admin costs are not going to save Social Security. To truly protect the program for future generations, tough decisions will have to be made.
And that means everyone, whether they’re already retired or just starting their career, may need to contribute a little more or accept a little less. The sooner these choices are faced, the better the chances are of avoiding sharp benefit cuts in the future.
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