Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Statement on the 2007 Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund Reports, April 23, 2007: “…This year’s Social Security report again demonstrates that the Social Security program is financially unsustainable and requires reform. In just 10 years, cash flows are projected to turn negative, and the Trust Funds are projected to be exhausted in 2041. Reform is needed and time is of the essence. The longer we delay, the larger the required adjustments will be – and the burden of making those adjustments will fall more heavily on future generations. Social Security’s unfunded obligation – the difference between the present values of Social Security inflows and outflows less the existing trust fund – equals $4.7 trillion over the next 75 years and $13.6 trillion on a permanent basis. The actuarial imbalance expressed as a percent of taxable payroll is 1.95 percent over 75 years and 3.5 percent over the indefinite future. This means that, to make the system whole on a permanent basis, the combined payroll tax rate would have to be raised immediately by about one-third from 12.4 percent to about 15.9 percent, or benefits reduced immediately by 22 percent. This report confirms the need for action; the sooner we take action to strengthen Social Security’s financial footing, the less drastic the needed reforms will be…”

Additionally, the Social Security Admnistration released The 2007 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds, making it available in HTML, in sections as follows: