Dear Senator Bennet:

I heard you say during your interview on National Public Radio this morning that if nothing is done, there will be no Social Security for people your age. This is badly mistaken. You should know, both for planning your own personal finances, and more importantly for your actions as Senator, that under any plausible set of circumstances you can anticipate a substantial Social Security benefit.

On the program you said that you are currently age 45. This means that if you work until the normal retirement age for your age cohort of 67, you will be retiring in 2032. While I don’t know your precise earnings history, your pay as a senator would make you eligible for the maximum benefit if it were sustained for 35 years. The Social Security Trustees Report shows that a maximum wage earner retiring in 2032 would receive an annual benefit of $40,800 in 2010 dollars. (This can be found in Table V1.F10 available here.)