The largest single federal program of any kind is Social Security. This program is generally thought of as providing benefits for retired workers. Social Security not only provides benefits for retired workers, but for the survivors of workers who die before retirement. The program also offers disability compensation for a worker that becomes unable to warn a living. He or she and any dependants are eligible for these benefits. These social security recipients are also eligible for Medicare, which is a type of insurance coverage. The major purpose of social security is to distribute income across time. In other words workers and employers pay into the fund while employed and receive the benefits when they retire or become disabled.
             Even though social security is generally a widely accepted program by the public, several problems are associated with this program. "Social security, the nation's largest, costliest, and most successful domestic program, has reached a critical point in its development. As its creators anticipated, nearly every wage earner now pays taxes into the system. In principle, all citizens may be eligible for entitlements at some point in their lives. Yet, senior citizens worry that their benefits will be cut; younger Americans are skeptical
             about their own benefits upon retirement"(Social Security Bulletin, PG 9.)
             That particular summation of the state of Social Security today was written a decade ago in a study supported by the Twentieth Century Fund. Looking back, it seems as though the Social Security system reaches a state crises in which the future predictions leave this program in a state of demise. Since it was enacted in 1935, Social Security has been amended often, most recently in 1983, when Congress imposed a tax on the benefits or higher-income retirees, raised the retirement age, and revised the tax rate schedule.
             Today, the future of Social Security is in the ne...