Will Social Security Go Bankrupt in the Next 20 Years?

Our weekly check-in with the Texas Truth-O-Meter.

By Rhonda Fanning & Alain StephensJanuary 25, 2017 7:35 am,

A Texas congressman forecasted disaster within two decades unless Congress adopts a fix to the Social Security program.

U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, declared in a Dec. 10, 2016, online post: “Social Security is in trouble (it’s going bankrupt by 2034).”

Is that a fact? Gardner Selby of the PolitiFact Texas fact-checking team has the answer.

Johnson, a former Texas House member and POW who also has announced plans not to seek re-election in 2018, included with his Facebook post a web link to a Forbes magazine news article about his freshly-introduced plan for Social Security reform.

That plan, he wrote in his post, would prevent benefits from being “immediately cut” by 20 percent when the Social Security fund runs dry.  Johnson’s 54-page proposal would change how benefits are calculated, lowering benefits for high-income workers and increasing them for low-income workers, and also raise the age at which workers could claim Social Security retirement benefits from the existing 66 to 69.

Hear how Johnson’s claim scored in the player above.