Coming next year: Cash deficits in Social Security

From Kansascity.com

Pretty soon all the people who talked about the "money" in the trust fund will learn otherwise. The CBO projects that the first cash deficits since the 1980s will show up next year and 2011. Ed Morrissey has the details at Hot Air.

During the Bush administration, opponents of reforming the system constantly repeated the refrain that when payroll taxes can no longer provide enough for Social Security outlays, the program will simply tap Treasury securities in the trust fund.
But that's when we'll find out those bonds are like IOUs you wrote yourself after tapping your kids' college fund. They can't be redeemed without doing what you would have to do if they didn't exist: Raise taxes, borrow more or cut spending.
The cash shortfall wasn't supposed to happen until 2017, but thanks to the weak economy, the problem is showing up a lot sooner.

Recipients will still receive their payments, but much of that money will come from the general fund, not payroll taxes.