[wombatpm]

According to https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v75n1/v75n1p1.html we reached peak social security surplus back around 2008, and cross the line into deficit real soon now. So instead of having extra revenue that can be spent, the budget now has to take into account redemptions of special social security bonds to fund current operations. From the Social Security Administrations perspective they have years of funding because of the trust fund. From a congressional perspective its a double hit to the budget No Surplus + have to pay back redemptions now.

So this was a wonderful time to give a trillion dollar tax cut to corporations.

I do not know how you reduce the size of the state with the baby boom bubble entering retirement. The paranoid part of me thinks the secret solution will be a 1918 Influenza resurgence that disproportionately takes out people over 70. Solves Social Security and Medicare expenditure at the federal level and the pension problem at the state and local level.