![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2273251902-e1778342977311.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz suggested the so-called Trump accounts for American children are part of an effort to revamp Social Security, a sensitive political subject long regarded as the \u201cthird rail\u201d in U.S. politics.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act created allowed parents and other authorized individuals to open tax-advantaged savings accounts for any child under 18 with a Social Security number. <\/p>\n
During a panel discussion at the Milken Institute\u2019s Global Summit\u00a0on Monday, Cruz pointed out he wrote that part of the legislation, noting that half of Americans don\u2019t own stocks and can\u2019t benefit from decades of compounding growth.<\/p>\n
For 50 years, he added, U.S. conservatives have been trying to mimic Australia\u2019s superannuation program, which requires employers to pay into an employee\u2019s investment fund to be accessed upon retirement as a way to reduce reliance on public pensions. Cruz described a U.S. version as Social Security personal accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the dirty little secret: Trump accounts are Social Security personal accounts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Republicans tried to make changes to Social Security during President George W. Bush\u2019s second term but retreated amid pushback on the politically charged topic.<\/p>\n
Retirees and soon-to-be retirees have long been a potent voting bloc that instill fear in lawmakers, especially those contemplating any adjustments to Social Security and Medicare.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did we get it done this time? Because we gave the money to babies and so the old people didn\u2019t get pissed,\u201d Cruz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The White House has estimated that fully funded Trump accounts could eventually grow to as much as $1.9 million by the time a child turns 28. <\/p>\n
Cruz said that as parents see their kids\u2019 Trump accounts surge, they will become more open to changing how their own payroll taxes are spent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t you like to be able to keep a portion of your tax payments that you\u2019re paying already, and instead of sending it to Uncle Sam, wouldn\u2019t you like to have a Trump account just like your kid does?\u201d he added. \u201cAnd my prediction is within five years, that is going to have a really compelling constituency because people will have seen it, and that is I think powerful and transformational.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that is where politics come into play. Social Security benefits are funded by workers currently paying payroll taxes, meaning diverting today\u2019s tax payments would affect today\u2019s retirees. <\/p>\n
At the same time, the U.S. debt has eclipsed GDP with the outlook deteriorating on the back of soaring entitlement spending and exploding interest expenses. <\/p>\n
Social Security tax revenue is already insufficient to cover benefits, with the difference currently bridged by the Social Security trust fund. But the trust fund projected to run out of money by 2034. <\/p>\n
Without any changes to the program to raise additional revenue, benefits would have be slashed immediately to match the money that\u2019s coming in, after the trust fund becomes insolvent.<\/p>\n
For his part, President Donald Trump has vowed not to touch Social Security benefits. Instead, his One Big Beautiful Bill Act reduced the amount of income taxes recipients pay on their benefits.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the White House has described the Trump accounts as a way to build wealth and get a head start on saving for retirement. <\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last year called the accounts\u00a0\u201ca backdoor for privatizing Social Security\u201d\u00a0but quickly clarified that they instead add to benefits alongside Social Security.<\/p>\n
For now, Trump accounts will likely become a ubiquitous workplace benefit, just like 401k accounts, with employers matching employees\u2019 contributions, Cruz said. <\/p>\n
\u201cRelatively speaking, it\u2019s a pretty inexpensive employee benefit,\u201d he added. \u201cBut the benefit over time is massive.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Ted #Cruz #Trump #accounts #Social #Security #personal #accounts #revealing #dirty #secret<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz suggested the so-called Trump accounts for American children are part of an effort to revamp Social Security, a sensitive political subject long regarded as the \u201cthird… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2822,4194,4196,665,1574,208,4195,2510,588,587,4192,417,3371,4193,260],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-accounts","tag-cruz","tag-dirty","tag-donald-trump","tag-personal","tag-retirement","tag-revealing","tag-secret","tag-security","tag-social","tag-social-security","tag-taxes","tag-ted","tag-ted-cruz","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}