THE STAT: 35%.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the payroll-tax rate would need to be raised by 35% in order to fully fund Social Security. Currently, Social Security is funded by a 12.4% payroll tax on taxable earnings and income tax paid on Social Security benefits. The CBO projects that Social Security revenue will remain stable at around 4.5% of GDP for the next 75 years, growing at the same rate as the economy. However, the increase in outlays is projected to cause a long-term deficit, with benefits potentially needing to be cut by 23% in fiscal year 2034. To avoid this, the CBO estimates that Congress would need to raise the payroll-tax rate to 16.7%. [Extracted from the article]