Social Security is presently bound for significant reductions in benefits without reforms that include a higher retirement age, according to a new analysis from the Heritage Foundation.

Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow at the conservative think tank, wrote that Social Security will see a benefit cut of 21% in the year 2033 without reforms, meaning that anyone in Generation X or younger ‘“will not receive a single full benefit” while those in the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation will also be “subject to cuts.” Greszler contended that amendments to the federal program should come in the form of steadily increasing the retirement age.

“Instead of massive tax increases that would unnecessarily burden younger and future generations, Social Security reform should focus on restoring the program’s original intent,” she wrote. “As a Great Depression-era program, Social Security sought to protect against poverty in old age and to prevent younger generations from bearing the financial burden.”

Greszler noted that “increased life expectancies, improved healthcare, and the shift away from physically demanding work” mean that the normal retirement age could be gradually increased “by one or two months per year” from the current level of sixty-seven to as much as seventy. She observed that life expectancy in the United States is now seventy-nine, a significantly higher level than the typical life expectancy of sixty-one recorded during the Great Depression.

Social Security reform remains a third rail in national politics: Republicans and Democrats are wary to discuss reform options out of concern that they could lose support from older voters.

Implementing reforms to Social Security through tax hikes would necessitate an increase from the current 12.4% rate to as much as 17.5%, meaning that the median household would pay as much as $3,800 in additional taxes every year. Merely increasing taxes on wealthy households would induce a combined federal and state income tax rate of 66% for the highest earners.

Greszler also recommended for Social Security to adopt a “universal benefit” such that Americans with the lowest incomes receive more from the program, as well as an “ownership option” which lets individuals privately manage a portion of their Social Security taxes rather than pay the federal government, a move that would “help more Americans build wealth.”