The Nation - News from Feb. 1, 1985

Social Security’s once impoverished old-age trust fund, which borrowed $17.5 billion in 1982 so it could issue checks on time, paid back a quarter of those loans. It returned $1.8 billion to its sister hospital insurance trust fund and $2.5 billion to the disability insurance fund, Social Security spokesman Jim Brown said. The old-age fund is now back in the black and showing surpluses each year instead of deficits. The 1983 Social Security rescue legislation, which shored up the system by cutting some benefits and raising taxes, required the old-age fund to repay the $17.5 billion in loans when the fund built up a 15% reserve.