Social Security has provided a guaranteed income for retirees, widows and disabled individuals for almost 70 years. But unless changes are made to the taxpayer-funded system, Social Security will begin paying more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes in about 15 years. That's when the retirement of millions of baby-boom workers will overwhelm the system's pay-as-you-go funding mechanism. Moreover, by 2052, the program's trillion-dollar trust fund is expected to run dry. Experts continue to debate the seriousness of the program's problems and the best way to strengthen it. Three years ago, President Bush called for bolstering Social Security funding by allowing workers to invest part of their payroll contributions in personal investment accounts. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry opposes privatization. Regardless of who wins this fall's presidential election, Social Security reform is likely to figure high on the legislative agenda next year.

Mary H. Cooper specializes in environmental, energy and defense issues. Before joining CQ Researcher as a staff writer in 1983, she was a reporter and Washington correspondent for the Rome daily newspaper l'Unita. She is the author of The Business of Drugs (CQ Press, 1990). She also is a contract translator-interpreter for the U.S. State Department. Cooper graduated from Hollins College in English.