The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by former President Joe Biden and enacted in January, had an impact. It repealed the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset provisions, increasing Social Security benefit levels for former public workers.

If no action is taken before 2033, the depletion of reserves in the retirement trust fund will result in an automatic 23% cut in benefits. Also, as widely noted, compared with last year’s report, the metrics are somewhat worse.