In the March 10 edition of The Washington Times, reporters Bill Sammon and Amy Fagan falsely claimed that under current law, the Social Security system will “become unable to pay any benefits as early as 2042.” In fact, according to the most recent projections by the Social Security trustees, the system will be able to pay promised benefits in full until 2042, at which point it would still be able to cover 73 percent of scheduled benefits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the system will be able to fully pay promised benefits into 2052, at which point it would still be able to cover 78 percent of scheduled benefits.

In December, Media Matters for America noted a similar claim by CBS News.