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If you’re a retiree on Social Security, or a person who’s close to retirement and trying to figure out if you’ll be able to afford it, consider this: In seven years, you may be in store for a 21% cut in your monthly benefit check.

That’s when Social Security’s trust fund is expected to reach insolvency, forcing the program to rely on pay-as-you-go funding. And the day of reckoning may come even sooner if Congress rubber-stamps a campaign promise by President-elect Donald J. Trump.

The picture is only a little better for Medicare, the national health insurance program for senior citizens. Its Hospital Insurance trust fund, which finances health care services related to hospital stays, skilled nursing facilities and hospice, is due to be depleted in 2036. But Mr. Trump’s proposal would push that up to 2030, forcing a cutback in benefits starting at........

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