Social Security faces looming benefit cuts. Can the program be saved?

Social Security's trust fund is projected to run out of money in just six years, triggering automatic cuts in retirement and disability benefits. Yet experts say the program's financial problems are fixable — if lawmakers are willing to make difficult choices.

The latest trustees' report found that Social Security's finances are being strained by an aging population, lower immigration and tax changes. But unlike some fiscal challenges, the retirement program's funding gap can be closed through a combination of higher taxes, lower benefits or both, according to policy analysts.

In other words, the debate is less about whether Social Security can be saved than which Americans should bear the cost of saving it.

"It's a simple math problem — it's not a simple political problem," Karen Glenn, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said in a recent conference call to discuss the program's finances. "We need to either raise scheduled revenue, reduce scheduled benefits or some combination of the two."

A common misconception is that Social Security's insolvency would mean it would no longer offer benefits to the more than 70 million Americans who rely on the program for income.

Instead, beneficiaries would continue to receive monthly checks, though the typical payment — currently $2,071 per month — would be cut by roughly $500, according to a report published earlier this month by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group focused on fiscal issues.

"The program is incredibly beloved, so contemplating the idea of reducing those benefits is really difficult," said Kathleen Romig, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a Social Security expert, on the same call. "We really need to think hard about how to raise enough money so we can afford those benefits because that is what people want."

Here are five ideas for saving Social Security before it becomes insolvent.

Social Security has applied a tax cap since the program debuted in the 1930s. The cap shields any income over a given amount from the payroll taxes that fund the program. In 2026, the threshold stands at $184,500, meaning that any earnings over that amount are exempt from a 6.2% payroll tax for workers and 6.2% tax for employers.

There are multiple proposals for eliminating or reducing the cap, ranging from phasing it out over time to introducing a "donut hole," meaning that people earning $184,500 to $250,000 (or even $400,000) wouldn't be subject to the payroll tax on those earnings. The tax would then kick in again for earnings ab