Six years away from Social Security’s insolvency and lawmakers still can’t agree on how to fix it

Six years away from Social Security’s insolvency and lawmakers still can’t agree on how to fix itListen(5 min)Listen(5 min)With six years to go until Social Security hits insolvency, lawmakers agree that the future of the program is a mess — but that’s about all they can agree on.The Senate budget committee held a hearing on Wednesday about possible solutions to prevent Social Security from automatic benefit cuts of about 24% in 2032 unless Congress acts first to fix the system.About the AuthorJessica Hall is a retirement reporter for MarketWatch. She was an Age Boom Academy Fellow with Columbia University and completed the Leadership Exchange on Ageism. She previously worked at Mainebiz, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, where she and her team earned a Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism for a series on aging. She spent 17 years at Reuters, covering mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications and airlines. She started her career in Baltimore at The Daily Record and Baltimore Business Journal. She has freelanced for Barron’s and other publications.A Dow Jones CompanyCopyright © 2026 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.