ZOT! The real facts of social security, courtesy of FactCheck

FactCheck.org ^ | February 3, 2005

[Future Snake Eater]

Nice Sephiroth you got there.

[socal_parrot]

CAOHCAUSCB

UC Santa Barbara, huh? Looks like you burnt one too many brain cells, partying in Isla Vista.

[Calpernia]

Sephiroth?

Is that what my cartoon is called?

I young girl I use to tutor over the Net from a Yahoo Group gave it to me.

[Fee]

In 1960, the federal courts ruled Social Security is a legislated entitlement. The arrangement between the government and the taxpayers is not a contract, even thought the Dems have used this term. The courts gave the government maximum flexibility to change Social Security based on the situation at hand. At worst, for the young people, Congress can force them to pay and deprive them of any benefits when they become old.

[microgood]

In five years, the Surplus in Social Security Maxes out at about 135 billion (taking in more than going out). That money is currently being spent by the government for other things and they are putting T bills in a Social Security location.

In 2018 the amount going in equals the amount going out. At that point the rest of government has 135 billion less than it had before.

After 2018, Social Security is going to make the rest of the government start to buy back all these T-bills, even further reducing the rest of government's disposable income. Then in 2042 the T-bills are gone.

So the train wreck really starts in 5 years. I do not see how the rest of the government is going to come up with the money starting in 5 years.

[international american]

Good call, ump!

[Calpernia]

I didn't read before I pinged. I was busy posting memorials:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1349893/posts

[John Valentine]

A wonderful post. I bow before you, Sir Geezer.

[BJungNan]

Krauthammer has an excellent column on socical security this week. Check it out. Very important read.

Krauthammer (scroll down, on left)

[BJungNan]

[KC_Conspirator]

What irks me is that a decade ago you could find articles in rags like Rolling Stone telling doped up youths of the oncoming social security crisis. Now they have Paul Krugman writing articles telling doped up youths that there is nothing wrong and its just a Bush scheme.

[Tymesup]

The Presdident did give one fix to the problem - private accounts. If the system is otherwise paying 73 or 78% of promised benefits, and your private account earned 6.8%, you might make up the shortfall.

Yes, private accounts are risky. Most people take this risk with their after-tax accounts. And their IRA's. Buying a car or a house are risky. So is changing jobs. And remaining at the same job. Yet we do these things all the time.

One other wrinkle to private accounts. Social Security redistributes income. Your benefit is based on 90% of your average earnings up to a certain level, plus 32% of your earnings up to another level, plus 15% of your earnings after that. This favors lower income workers. Diverting 4% of your income to private accounts doesn't favor anyone.

Finally, the IRS issued regulation 1.412(c)(3) in 1980. One of the examples in the reg is of a pension plan with a funding target of 99% of benefits. They conclude this is not a reasonable funding method.

[Tymesup]

"When you see the SS tax on your paycheck, just add it to the Federal Income tax portion to get your true tax rate"

It's worse than that. Add in the 7.65% of pay that your employer pays on your behalf. That's money neither you nor your employer aren't getting, either.

[Congressman Billybob]

FactCheck.org is a politically bigoted outfit on the left. This (factual) analysis proves the point.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, Confessions of a "Salivating Moron"

[PGalt]

The forced fraud of socialist security is anti-freedom and definitely anti-life.

[KoRn]

All Your Social Security ARE Belong To Us!!!!

ZOT!

PWND!

[Just A Nobody]

"And we know that it will not go bankrupt, but it will not be able to fully pay the benefits out..."

1. Get a dictionary
2. Define the term "BANKRUPT"
3. Call your creditors & ask if it is ok to pay 70 something cents on the dollar for the debt you owe
4. Give me a call & let me know what they say
5. Then I'll continue

[Just A Nobody]

Hey Mr. President,
Time to do a little house cleaning in the Senior Administration Dept.
Love Ya,
Justanobody

[John Lenin]

Posting articles from Annenberg, ahhhh. Socialist Lobotomies

One left-wing journal, In These Times, produced John B. Judis, now a senior editor of The New Republic, as well as Sidney Blumenthal, who became a Washington Post reporter. He later became Bill Clinton's chief hatchet man with the media. Another left-wing star, David Gelber was the staff director for the massive May Day 1971 anti-war march on Washington, before moving to network televison news. After a stint producing for Dan Rather, he ended up as Ed Bradley's senior producer at "60 Minutes."

And then there is Robert Scheer, contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times and The Nation, syndicated columnist, and senior lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication. Scheer's current bio omits some intriguing highlights, however. He visited Kim Il Sung's North Korean paradise and told Radosh, in a taped interview, that Kim had created a true path to socialism. Scheer's views were too much even for Pacifica radio, which refused to run the interview. Scheer later became Wen Ho Lee's staunchest defender.

[Just A Nobody]

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