Supplemental Security Income is administered by Social Security. Some lawyers and activists make a living getting alcoholics, drug users, mentally disabled (not nuts just weird), and so on into this program. In one breath the government says it comes out of general revenue, not the Social Security Trust. In the next breath the Congressional Budget Office tells you the Trust is simply an accounting gimmick. Everything goes through the general treasury.
"CBO A series of issue summaries from
the Congressional Budget Office
No. 3, August 1, 2002
"Social Security and the Federal Budget: The Necessity of Maintaining a Comprehensive Long-Range Perspective By law, the Social Security program is treated as an "off-budget" entity, and its financial figures are displayed separately from the rest of the budget. The separate display, along with the use of trust funds as an accounting device, is a means of distinguishing the program's finances from those of other government activities. However, the distinction can be confusing when it leads people to think of Social Security as an independent financial entity. Social Security is a federal program, and as such, all of its taxes are received by and its outlays dispensed from the U.S. Treasury."
Social Security is a Tax on the middle class making them contribute most of their income to the public treasury.
Here is a Pie chart showing SS, income, corporate, and other revenue
When you add SS to other taxes paid, you will find the middle class provides the majority of taxes, not the top several percent claimed by Rush Limbaugh.
What I get out of this is that two classes of people are sucking the blood out of the middleclass -- the idle poor and the super rich looking to out do each other.
Good post!
I think Rush was speaking ONLY of income tax, not payroll.