Experts Debate Whether Social Security Trust Funds Are Assets or Accounting Tools
Tax and budget analysts at the Cato Institute disagreed over whether Social Security’s trust funds are true assets, accounting mechanisms or effectively debt.
Tax and budget analysts at the Cato Institute met Wednesday to debate whether Social Security’s trust funds should be viewed as real assets, accounting entries or obligations that function like debt. While participants largely agree Social Security faces long-term financing challenges, they sharply disagree on how to classify the trust funds and the policy implications of that classification.