# Social Security **OMB budget function 650** and the single largest line in the federal budget — **~$1.58 trillion in FY2025**, more than national defense and net interest combined. The program created by the [[Social Security Act]] of 1935 pays retirement, survivors, and disability benefits (OASDI) to ~70 million people. It is the archetype of mandatory spending (see [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]]): outlays are set by eligibility formulas in permanent law, not by the annual [[Appropriations Process]], so they grow automatically as the population ages. ## Why it dominates the ledger - ~$1.58T in FY2025, growing ~8% a year as Baby Boomers retire and benefits adjust for inflation (the COLA). - Funded primarily by the dedicated payroll tax and the OASI/DI trust funds. The trust funds are projected to face a financing shortfall in the mid-2030s, after which scheduled benefits would exceed incoming revenue — the recurring "Social Security solvency" fight. - Because it is self-financed and universally popular, it sits **outside** most discretionary budget battles — the original political "third rail." ## The RWKB angle Social Security is where fiscal rhetoric meets electoral reality. The structural math says the four mandatory giants ([[Social Security]], [[Medicare]], the [[Medicaid]] function, and [[Net Interest on the Debt]]) drive long-run deficits — yet they are the hardest to touch. The right's positioning oscillates between "we will protect Social Security" (the campaign posture) and proposals for privatization, raising the retirement age, or means-testing (the think-tank / [[Project 2025]] posture). Tracking the gap between the two across each [[President's Budget Request]] is the core exercise. ## Related - [[Social Security Act]] · [[Medicare]] · [[Income Security]] - [[Discretionary vs Mandatory Spending]] · [[Budget Functions]] · [[Budget Hub]] - [[Federal Budget FY2025]] ## See also - [[Index Choice and Chained CPI]] — how the choice of inflation index quietly redistributes trillions, and why chained CPI is a policy decision disguised as a technical correction