Social Security: There Is No Trust; There Is No Fund
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/04/social-se...
Social Security: There Is No Trust; There Is No Fund
Social Security is back in the limelight where once again its problems will no doubt be ignored.
Please consider Recession Puts a Major Strain On Social Security Trust Fund.
The U.S. recession is wreaking havoc on yet another front: the Social Security trust fund.
With unemployment rising, the payroll tax revenue that finances Social Security benefits for nearly 51 million retirees and other recipients is falling, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, the trust fund's annual surplus is forecast to all but vanish next year -- nearly a decade ahead of schedule -- and deprive the government of billions of dollars it had been counting on to help balance the nation's books.
The Treasury Department has for decades borrowed money from the Social Security trust fund to finance government operations. If it is no longer able to do so, it could be forced to borrow an additional $700 billion over the next decade from China, Japan and other investors. And at some point, perhaps as early as 2017, according to the CBO, the Treasury would have to start repaying the billions it has borrowed from the trust fund over the past 25 years, driving the nation further into debt or forcing Congress to raise taxes.
My Comment: Therein lies the rub. There is no fund per se. It's all been spent, and then some.
I find this disturbing:
S.S. should have been left alone for it's original purposes and it may have been OK. There are many out there that counted on, and depend on it.
I myself am disabled and would have a tough time ( if not impossible) in the real world job market. While I despise being in this situation and am working on finding a way out of it, many can't. I only hope I can. We are the worse country in the world when it comes to the way our elderly are treated. I have watched as they are stripped of whatever wealth they have accumulated and forced to endure the loss of their autonomy and many other things because they have become dependent on the gooberment. I can use my mother as an example. She isn't going hungry, but just trying to take care of her dog, who has been a great and irreplaceable companion, is almost more then she can bare. It is frustrating to say the least. Teach your children well, and give a little of yourself to demonstrate that we can appreciate our elders for their years of service for us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love my country
I am appalled by my government
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love my country
I am appalled by my government
If they create the money to fill the SS needs
just think of how devalued the currency will be, just based on this.
"What was taken from the boomers, it ain't there, what was taken from the X'ers it ain't there, what is being taken from their great, great, great squared grandchildren it ain't there. Some generation just has to have the guts to quit passing it on." Me
*May the only ones to touch your junk, be the ones you want to touch your junk.*
Social Security Stunner US date with Bankrptcy Moved Up 8 Years
www.chrismartenson.com/blog/social-security-stunner-bankrupt...
Martenson did a nice analysis of the Washington Post article the other day. If you are on Social Security or paying into and counting on it (that's most everyone) you should have a gander at the break down and fallacy of the data spin.
snip:"In the projections for the table above, the CBO has assumed no cost of living adjustments (COLAs) in 2010, 2011, or 2012 and a return to economic growth next year. If either of those assumptions proves wrong, the table above gets smoked to the downside. I give that a better than 90% chance of happening.
From a budget-busting perspective, last year where the US government had a $73 billion Social Security surplus to spend, this year it will be a paltry $16 billion and next year it will be a number indistinguishable from zero. It is hard to overstate the importance of this shift.
This means several things. Instead of $703 billion coming in over the next 10 years, the current (overly optimistic) projection calls for only $83 billion. This means at least another $620 billion in fresh borrowing will have to occur.
More importantly, this means that the United States eventual date with bankruptcy has been moved forward by about 8 years or so. It also means that instead of being some future problem, a few administrations down the road, it is a near certainty that the current administration will have to confront some very difficult funding decisions that will be forced by the inability to borrow enough to pay for everything."
try a $100 Trillion Unfunded Liabiality by 2054!
Oddly, I will be 65 in 2047..but I doubt I'll see it then either!
The figure I saw was $101 Trillion as a result of a report
issued last fall by the Social Security Trustees. Hey, what's a mere Trillion dollars here and there? I'm afraid that I will be there before you, but the cupboard will have long since been emptied. I have no intention of applying for it anyway. That won't make any difference, but I cannot bring myself to engage the notion of taking public plunder. I would like what I paid in returned to me, but then that won't be done because, since 1937, the law has been that those FICA taxes are treated just like any other taxes collected and paid into the public treasury and can be spent any constitutionally-permissible way desired by Congress.
_________________________________________
"An economy built on fiat money is a society on its way to ashes."
_________________________________________
"An economy built on fiat money is a society on its way to ashes."
actually 1967
is when LBJ signed into Law..SSI into the General fund..something about a War and a Great Society he needed to fund...
See: Helvering v. Davis 301 U.S. 619 (1937) The court at that
time, ruled that taxes collected under the Social Security act were just as much a part of the general treasury as any other taxes collected and that Congress could, if it determined as necessary, completely eliminate any entitlement payments (that's what Social Security payments are) and keep the Social Security tax in place. To this day, the government continues to promote the lie that taxes paid by an individual are somehow segregated into an account for that individual and that it represents some kind of demand-deposit account. They even send out periodic letters purporting to document how much money has been paid into an individual's "account", thereby nurturing the lie. Many people still believe it.....but it just ain't so. It was challenged based upon the 10th amendment, by alleging that the stated purpose of the act (old age survivors benefits) was not a power granted to Congress for which a tax could be laid and collected The court determined otherwise, declaring that the "purpose" was the General Welfare of the country and that Congress could lay and collect a tax for that purpose and that the money could be spent for any purpose allowed Congress by the Constitution. At the time, the act was being challenged because of its unemployment benefits (Steward Machine v Davis....the primary case citation) which a bit strange for an act that publicly was sold as some kind of old age pension system.....an assertion that still makes for light humor in the insurance business.
_________________________________________
"An economy built on fiat money is a society on its way to ashes."
_________________________________________
"An economy built on fiat money is a society on its way to ashes."
Everyone around me is
counting on social security. I say the only thing you can count on is the money in your wallet.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
You can't even count on the
You can't even count on the money in your wallet, because the government can simply steal that as well via the inflation tax.
...
We can all count on SS tax
We can all count on SS tax being withheld from the paycheck.
Never thought I'd see mine
It's only good for an ID now. Not even that so much.