Posted on 08/06/2011 4:42:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Social Security is the federal government's largest single program. About 56 million people will receive Social Security benefits this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. About 69 percent are retired workers, their spouses, and children.
In calendar year 2010, for the first time since the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, annual outlays for the program exceeded annual revenues excluding interest credited to the trust funds. CBO projects that the gap will continue.
CBO projects that the DI trust fund will be exhausted in 2017 and that the OASI trust fund will be exhausted in 2040. Once a trust fund's balance has fallen to zero and current revenues are insufficient to cover the benefits that are specified in law, the corresponding program will be unable to pay full benefits without changes in law.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbo.gov ...
Cue picture of Reid and Pelosi hailing statue of FDR. “Social Security Trust Fund is fine”.
There is NO trust fund. Social Security is partially bankrupt now.
The “trust fund” has been emptied every month since 1968 by Social Security payments and “borrowing” (theft) by the general fund. The government IOUs left to itself are not legitimate debt under GAAP and would constitute fraud if carried as an asset on a business balance sheet, which for that reason GAAP is never applied to government accounting.
Picture 56 million seniors marching on Versailles on the Potomac. The French Revolution will be a Sunday school picnic in comparison.
TAKE THE OTHER 31% OFF AND THERE IS PLENTY OF MONEY
It is not an “Entitlement” when youu paid for it. It is only an “Entitlement” if you are getting the benefits for nothing. I PAID. I want what is rightfully mine.
The liberal POV on the SS surplus?
“used it to finance tax cuts”!
Yes:
“As soon as the first surpluses began to role in, in 1985, the money was put into the general revenue fund and spent on other government programs. None of the surplus was saved or invested in anything. The surplus Social Security revenue, that was paid by working Americans, was used to replace the lost revenue from Reagan’s big income tax cuts that went primarily to the rich.
...Dr. Allen W. Smith is a Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author of seven books and has been researching and writing about Social Security financing for the past ten years”
So higher edumacation has been preparing the voters for the day their SS slush fund ran out.
I wonder if the CBO took into account the Federal income taxes paid on SS retirement benefits also.
The only difference between what Bernie Madoff did and what the US government is doing to us and our descendants is that his crimes only effected several hundred, or possibly as many as a few thousand people. And their decision to participate was voluntary. With the social security ponzi scheme, hundreds of millions of people are going to be screwed out of their "contributions," and we had no choice about "contributing."
Madoff is spending the rest of his life in jail, while the people who screwed us out of nearly 15% of our earnings (FICA Madoff tax & Medicare) will be getting lavish retirement pensions for the rest of their lives.
Mark
There never was a “trust fund”. It was always a fraud. The only thing the Feds can do with money is buy some form of treasury instrument, basically an IOU to ourselves. There is actually a drawer somewhere in West Virginia stuffed with special treasury notes designated for SS.
How many will be riding on their “free” powered wheelchairs or demanding discounted bus fare?
So, 31% should have never been eligible for benefits...
I have a question, I have a social security disability hearing in Sept.( heart problems) and wondered if anyone has any advice or ideas about what I should expect in light of these recent developements. It’s already taken more than a year to get to this point.
I want what is rightfully mine.
Congress can change the rules anytime it wants. And once you deposit your contributions, they no longer belong to you, see Flemming vs Nestor.
does the Constitution say that Govt Rules, or, does it say the Govt Serves The People?
In the case of SS, what is your point?
” In the case of SS, what is your point?”
can you be more specific?
“I want what is rightfully mine.”
That’s why it is called an entitlement. People think they are entitled to a benefit because they paid in.
You asked the question, “Does the Constitution say that Govt Rules, or, does it say the Govt Serves The People?” So exactly how does this apply to SS and current law?
“In that government, a punishment certain and inevitable is provided, but in this, there is no real, actual punishment for the grossest mal-administration. They may go without punishment though they commit the most outrageous violation on our immunities. That paper may tell me they will be punished. I ask: By what law? They must make the law, for there is no existing law to do it. What, will they make a law to punish themselves? “ - Patrick Henry
As Patrick Henry said, there will never be a law punishing those who make bad laws.
And no dinners out at Olive Garden are in there, no trips to see the grandchildren, no MRI’s to diagnose a cancer. Those things must be produced and to produce them, people want to be paid something valuable.
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