Posted on 10/08/2013 6:49:13 AM PDT by SkyPilot
The Social Security Administration has begun warning the public it cannot guarantee full benefit payments if the debt ceiling isnt increased.
When asked by the public, the agency is notifying beneficiaries that Unlike a federal shutdown which has no impact on the payment of Social Security benefits, failure to raise the debt ceiling puts Social Security benefits at risk, according to a person familiar with the agency directive.
The warning was assembled after the agency consulted with the Treasury Department, which would play a lead role in determining how the government handles payments if the borrowing limit isnt raised soon.
Our employees started receiving questions from the public, so the agency worked with Treasury to provide an answer they could use when asked about the debt ceiling by the public, a Social Security Administration spokesman...
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Cutting SS, does that also include welfare payments?
Debt Ceiling: Fox News’s Stuart Varney, indicated that there is enough Tax money coming in monthly to the Feds, to cover the interest on the US debt and SS. Who’s zooming who?
I paid for it - to the tune of 15% in some years and 12.5% in others. I paid so much in FICA that I maxed out for more than 20 years of my working life.
Thats *MY* money, taken from me forcibly by the Gubmint.
I want it back.
Good luck with that! You have believed a well orchestrated LIE for most of your life.Its not your fault, but you have been CONNED. The courts decided around 1960 that Social Security is a tax and an entitlement. You must pay the tax, because the Federal Government has the Authority to tax you. But the government is in no way obligated to pay you anything in return. Once you are taxed, it is no longer your money - it is theirs - to do as they please. For the record, ALL TAXES are taken from me forcibly by the Gubmint. Such is the nature of a tax.
They can raise the benefit, they can lower the benefit, they can do away with the benefit altogether, entirely at their discretion. And you have no legal recourse.
For years the Federal Government has maintained a fuzzy link between how much one pays into Social Security, and how much benefit one receives. But the purpose of this fuzzy link is to delude the public into the belief that Social Security is an investment or an annuity. It is not.
Social Security is about taxing the productive members of society by deluding them into thinking they are investing for themselves. It is about reducing self-sufficient wage-earning Americans to a state of government dependancy. It is about control.
The Obama phones alone cost the S.S.payers several million.”””
I get only ONE SS check-—
I pay ONE land line phone bill.
I pay ONE bill to the power company.
I pay ONE bill for my auto insurance.
I basically make ONE trip for groceries & freeze stuff.
There are many of ‘Obama’s people’ out there who are bragging that they have several Obamaphones!!!
One ghetto resident proudly boasted that she had SEVEN of them!!! We are tired of such displays of lack of gratitude.
/johnny
Is it OK if we mug Corp for Public Broadcasting for that 455 MILLION they got the other day?
I paid in for 50+ years. You are far short of what many of us paid.
Exactly.
/johnny
I don’t see what the problem is. Everyone ‘knows’ that our SS money is in a lockbox, fully protected from robbery by the Congress by the full faith and credit of the United States.
And there is no danger of the money running dry as millions of baby boomers swell the ranks of the retirees on benefits.
And the Easter Bunny brings Easter Eggs and the Tooth Fairy leaves money under your pillow when you lose a tooth.
I believe all these things are true.
Hell, no!!
THOSE are Obama’s voters!!!
Can’t touch that!!!
So I've paid in for 40+ years. I've paid in much more than many older than me.
And it doesn't matter. Because all of our money was stolen and spent.
/johnny
Nonsense. Here is the way SS works. It is a pay as you go system. Today's workers pay for today's retirees. The money collected thru the payroll tax is deposited into the SSTF in the form of non-market, interest bearing T-bills. After benefits are paid, the "surplus" is left in the SSTF. SS has been running in the red since 2010. The SSTF has about $2.4 trillion in T-bills. The SSTF is part of the $17 trillion national debt and held in the account of "Intra-governmental Holdings." The SSTF T-bills are essentially the same as the T-bills China bought from us or the Fed.
Even if these T-bills in the SSTF were held in cash, SS would still be running a deficit and will eventually run out of money. SS is actuarily unsustainable. It is a Ponzi scheme. Benefits have to be cut or taxes raised or some combination thereof to make it sustainable.
Yup, when i started paying I think my money went to pay for “Johnson’s War”.
/johnny
“It is a tale told by an idiot.”
I thought it was in a “lockbox” (said in my best AlGore accent)?
There really is no swap. The payroll taxes collected go immediately into non-market, interest bearing T-bills that are backed by the full faith and credit of the USG. They are IOUs just as much as any T-bill is.
Where would you want the SS "surplus" to go? It was/is a massive amount of money. We are no longer running a surplus and won't unless the program is reformed. The main problem with SS is not that the USG "stole" the money, but rather, the program is flawed actuarily (as is Medicare which has been running in the red since 2008). With 10,000 baby boomers retiring a day for the next 22 years, there is not enough money to pay the benefits promised. The entire SSTF will be gone by around 2035 and then reduced benefits will be required.
The real problem that is being caused now by SS is that it is running in the red and therefore, some of the T-bills in the SSTF must be cashed in to make up the shortfall. The General Fund has been running in the red for more than 60 years. Hence, we must borrow money to redeem the SS T-bills. During the period 1983-2009 SS was a cash cow. Now it is becoming a black hole. In 1983 when SS was running in the red, Reagan struck a deal with Tip O'Neill that increased SS taxes and decreased benefits. Something similar must be done now to save SS. Personally, I would prefer privatization, but there is not the political will to do so.
ABC lies.
Actuarial? Haha, all collections go into ‘the general fund’, meaning there is no actuarial plan other than collect more from the stupid public when the new doles cost more than is coming in.
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