With post-election posturing and an eye toward the budget deadline (December 20, 2024), the elbowing about what to keep and cut when it comes to spending has already begun.
One word that keeps resurfacing in the midst of these debates is “entitlement.” Some taxpayers seem to equate entitlement with subsidy—what you and I think of as a hand-out—while others claim that it’s earned and can’t be taken away. Memes like this one, which says, “REPEAT AFTER ME: Social Security is OUR money, that we earned by working and paying into the fund – EACH paycheck, and NOT an “Entitlement”!” are making the rounds.
It’s clear that we’re not all talking about the same thing in the same way. So, what exactly is an entitlement, and what does it have to do with your money?
When it comes to government, an entitlement typically means a benefit that is guaranteed, often by law. That distinction is made clear in the budget, where entitlement spending is separate from discretionary spending.
With discretionary spending—what Congress will be wrangling with before the December 20 deadline—there’s a lot of wiggle room regarding what can be added and what might be cut. But when it comes to entitlement spending, there’s no annual appropriation or subjectivity—the benefit is guaranteed. Any movement in the total amount of benefits paid out is generally dependent on the number of benefit recipients, although depending on the benefit, the amount may be adjusted for inflation.
By law, those benefits will be paid even if there’s a deficit and even if—as is the case now—Congress has not passed a budget.
The tricky part? Mandatory spending—like those entitlement programs—is much more expensive than discretionary spending.
The most popular entitlement programs in the U.S. are Social Security and Medicare. Here’s how they work.
Wages and self-employment income are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. For wage earners, Social Security and Medicare taxes are called FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) and are taken out of your paycheck. Taxes on self-employment income are sometimes called SECA (Self-Employment Contributions Act) taxes since self-employed persons pay both the employee and employer contributions.
If you’re employed, you pay Social Security tax at a rate of 6.2% as the employee, and your employer pays the same tax rate on your behalf. If you’re self-employed, you are responsible for both parts.
Social Security taxes are subject to a wage cap. That means you pay Social Security taxes on your earnings until you hit the magic number. After that, your wages are no longer subject to Social Security taxes. For 2025, that magic number is $176,100 (commonly called the taxable maximum). That means that whether you make $1,000 or $100,000, you will pay Social Security taxes on your income. But if you earn $176,101? You’ll pay Social Security taxes on the first $176,100 but not on the extra dollar. And if you earn $1,176,100? Same result: you’ll pay Social Security taxes on $176,100, but not on the extra million.
In contrast, all wages are subject to Medicare taxes. If you’re employed, you pay Medicare tax of 1.45% as the employee, and your employer kicks in tax at the same rate. As before, if you’re self-employed, you’ll pay both portions, for a total tax rate of 2.9%.
High-income taxpayers are also subject to an additional Medicare tax of 0.9% tacked onto wages that exceed $200,000 for single filers—those thresholds are $125,000 for married taxpayers filing separately and $250,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly.
If you’re a wage earner, your employer collects your Social Security and Medicare payments and remits both their portion and your share to the government. Self-employed persons pay the IRS directly. No matter who pays, these taxes are credited toward your retirement benefits.
When it’s time to collect, the amount you’ll receive will be dependent on your earnings history—Social Security will determine the amount of your benefits based on how much you earned during your lifetime. The more you make, the higher the benefit (subject to limitations). If there were some years when you didn’t work or reported low earnings, your benefits may be lower. And if you worked but have no record of your compensation, your benefits may also be lower.
Social Security and Medicare are examples of entitlement programs with a dedicated funding source—those payroll taxes that we (workers, employers, and self-employed persons) pay into the system make up a “trust fund.” Like a bank deposit, your actual contributions don’t sit in a vault waiting for you to claim them. Instead, your money is used to pay benefits for other taxpayers, and future collections will be used to pay your benefits—at least, that’s the hope. The problem? Social Security’s total costs now exceed its total income—that’s been the case since 2021.
The trustees for that money—remember there’s a trust fund—expect to pay costs using a combination of sources, including trust fund asset reserves from the General Fund of the Treasury through 2035. That’s when, without any further action, the trust fund reserves will run out.
What happens then? Remember that workers are still paying in as we go. That money, however, will only be sufficient to pay about three-quarters of scheduled benefits through 2098.
There’s a similar problem with Medicare since expenses per beneficiary will exceed receipts. Medicare is actually made up of two funds, but most taxpayers think of it in parts:
- Medicare Part A helps cover inpatient care in hospitals, skilled nursing facility, hospice, and home health care. For most taxpayers, Medicare Part A is considered “premium free” since you or your spouse paid into the system while working.
- Medicare Part B is medical insurance and covers services like lab tests, surgeries, doctor visits, and supplies like wheelchairs and walkers that are considered medically necessary to treat a disease or condition. It’s optional coverage, and you have to pay for it if you want it.
- Medicare Part C is sometimes called the Medicare Advantage Plan. It’s not a separate benefit but is the part of the policy that allows private health insurance companies to provide Medicare benefits.
- Medicare Part D is prescription drug coverage.
The trustees project that Part B and Part D will be more or less adequately financed in the near future because taxpayers pay as they go. However, as the population gets older and health care costs go up, total Medicare costs will increase. The result? The Trustees anticipate that Medicare will face a substantial financial shortfall.
To keep the trust funds for Social Security and Medicare solvent, there will have to be changes. There are a number of ways to do that, including raising payroll taxes, lowering the cost-of-living adjustments, raising the ages for eligibility, and taxing benefits. As you can imagine, none of these options are particularly popular.
So what if Congress simply does nothing to top up the trust fund? By law—specifically, the Social Security Act—benefits must still be paid. That means that funding will have to come from other sources—like federal income tax revenues.
These aren’t small problems. Entitlements are the most significant part of the federal budget. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid make up nearly half of the budget, costing a whopping $2.7 trillion. That’s over three times as much as the country spends on defense, the largest discretionary budget item—and those costs aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
Despite calls to reduce Social Security spending, Congress appears to be moving in the opposite direction. This week, a bipartisan bill to change Social Security benefit rules passed in the House of Representatives. H.R. 82 would repeal existing provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits, such as a state or local government pension. The bill also eliminates the government pension offset (GPO), which may reduce Social Security benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own, and the windfall elimination provision (WEP), which can reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes. (You can see how your representative voted here.)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill will add an estimated $196 billion to deficits over the next decade. The bump in the deficit is attributable to eliminating the GPO and WEP—those provisions were created to prevent Social Security from overpaying beneficiaries who also collect from state and local pensions they paid into instead of paying Social Security taxes during their employment for state and local governments.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
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