Social Security Runs Dry in 2033: 70 Million Hit by Automatic 20% Benefit Cut

The Social Security trust fund exhausts in seven years. Absent congressional action, payroll tax income alone covers only 77–80 cents per dollar of scheduled benefits—an automatic statutory cut affecting roughly 70 million current and near-future recipients. Not a shutdown, but a material reduction. The policy toolkit exists; the bottleneck is political. Congress hasn't passed major Social Security reform since 1983.