WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- U.S. officials said Tuesday the Social Security system is not financially self-sustainable.
The Medicare and Social Security trustees made the assessment in releasing their annual report on the entitlement program.
Each year, the trustees look at the financial condition of both Social Security and Medicare, and Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters Social Security "continues to be seriously underfunded," with a $3.7 trillion benefit obligation, for which trustees predicted it will not have the money.
Snow said the program's cash flow will be in the red in 2018 and the program's money will be exhausted in 38 years and "neither of those dates have changed since last year's report. Part of the growing problem is the 76 million baby boomers who will be retire and file for Social Security in the next couple of decades.
"While we have some time," Snow told reporters, "inaction is not a responsible course. The longer we wait the more difficult the ultimate solution will be."
