(TNND) — Many Americans rely on Social Security, but many don’t really understand the program, said Romina Boccia, the Cato Institute’s director of budget and entitlement policy.

Cato, a libertarian-leaning think tank, found in a new survey that most Americans don’t know how Social Security is funded.

That includes 23% of people who incorrectly believe that their taxes are saved in a personal account.

Just 45% picked the right answer in the survey: Current workers pay taxes that fund benefits for today’s retirees, while tomorrow’s workers will fund benefits for tomorrow’s retirees.

Cato said Social Security was originally intended to ensure that seniors don’t fall below the poverty line. But 55% of people in the survey said the program’s main goal wasn’t as a guardrail against poverty, but as an income replacement for retirees.

“Social Security is shrouded in many myths and in political rhetoric that’s far from economic reality, and it has made it very difficult to have an honest, fact-based conversation about Social Security’s finances and its future,” Boccia said.

Even the government’s reference to Social Security as a trust fund is misleading, Boccia said.

There’s no actual trust fund, she said.

It’s merely an accounting mechanism within the federal government.

Benefits are paid from taxes, and the shortfalls are covered through borrowing.

Until 2010, workers paid more in Social Security taxes than what the federal government paid out in benefits.

Since then, Social Security has borrowed over $1 trillion to bridge the gap, Boccia said.

And the government is expected to borrow another $4 trillion to make up the Social Security deficit between now and 2033.

Social Security’s retirement program is projected to become insolvent in 2033.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any money for retirees in 2034. But it does mean retirees can only get paid based on what’s currently coming in, mainly the payroll taxes on working Americans.

Government analysts project that if Congress does nothing by then, all Social Security benefits could be cut by about a quarter.

That looming funding crisis is really just the end of the statutory borrowing authority, Boccia said.

People are living longer and cashing Social Security checks for longer.

Meanwhile, declining fertility rates mean there are fewer new workers to generate tax revenue for retiree benefits.

In the 1950s, we had 16 workers paying taxes for every one beneficiary of Social Security, Boccia said. Now, there are just 2.7 workers paying taxes to cover the costs of supporting a Social Security beneficiary.

The new survey found Americans are divided about how to address Social Security’s 2033 shortfall.

The most popular choice, at 37%, was to raise taxes. The next most popular choice, 35%, was for the government to borrow more to cover the shortfall.

The U.S. government is already $37 trillion in the hole.

The least popular option, 28%, was to reduce Social Security benefits.

Americans are already worried they won’t get what they should from Social Security when they retire.

The survey found just 21% expected to get “a lot” of their scheduled Social Security benefit.

Twenty-seven percent said they expect to receive “some.”

And 13% said they expect to receive nothing at all.

Boccia said Americans haven’t demanded Social Security reform, despite the long-term concerns over the program’s funding.

“It’s really the older voters that are most influential with politicians,” she said. “And older voters’ preferences for keeping their current (benefits) or increasing their current benefits have outweighed concerns by other voting groups that aren’t as vocal or well-versed in how entitlement programs work.”

Three-quarters of people 65 and older voted last fall, compared to just 48% of people 18-24 and 57% of people 25-34, according to KFF.

“Politicians primarily think about the next election,” Boccia said. “And, in fact, politicians stand to gain from doling out benefits to current voters at the expense of future voters who cannot hold them accountable.”

That’s why Boccia likes the idea of a congressionally established fiscal commission with the authority to reform Social Security.

That could give lawmakers political cover for unpopular changes.

“I believe that the most likely path to reform success is by allowing Congress to do what it does best, and that is abdicate responsibility,” Boccia said. “Only in this case, I believe that they’ve already abdicated the power of the purse when it comes to entitlement programs. Because politicians of the past, in the 1950s and 1970s, put these programs on autopilot spending growth, with the current Congress needing to take no vote to authorize extra spending on these programs. But it’s just built into current law. You might call these zombie programs, if you will.”

Boccia and her Cato colleague Ivane Nachkebia have a book titled “Reimagining Social Security” coming out Tuesday, in which they explore “more structural, bold reforms that US legislators and the public should consider.”

A reform idea Cato asked about in its new survey was a flat Social Security benefit, where everyone would get about $1,800 a month regardless of how much they contributed to the system.

Boccia said that might be a politically viable reform.

Republicans might welcome the overall reduction in the cost of benefits, the avoidance of higher debt and higher taxes, she said.

Benefits for top earners would be reduced under a flat system.

And benefits would be increased for the most vulnerable seniors, which Boccia said is something that Democrats should rally behind.