More correct, you could not be. The problem with SS being a government liability, at this point, has been caused by the raiding of the SS trust fund and the replacement of those funds with US Treasury Bonds. If the cash were all still in the trust, it would not be a cash liability, at least yet.
The problem with SS is the manner in which it has been bastardized since inception:
The original 1935 statute paid retirement benefits only to the primary worker. Many types of people were excluded, mainly farm workers, the self-employed, and anyone employed by an employer of fewer than ten people. These limitations, intended to exclude those from whom it would be difficult to monitor compliance, covered approximately half of the civilian labor force in the United States.
The 1935 Act also contained the first national unemployment-compensation program, aid to the states for various health and welfare programs, and the Aid to Dependent Children program. The initial tax rate was 2.0% of the first $3,000 of the employee's earnings, shared equally between the employee and the employer. The tax rate has been raised several times over the years, beginning in 1950, when it was raised to 3.0%. In 1939, the 1937 Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax was amended in three important ways: The widowed, nonworking spouse of a someone entitled to an old-age benefit also became entitled to an old-age benefits, Survivors (widows and orphans) became eligible for a benefit, Retirees who had never paid any FICA taxes became eligible for old-age benefits. This feature was very popular among the millions of elderly Americans hard hit by the Great Depression, and fatefully decoupled benefits eligibility from work history.
In 1956, the tax rate was raised to 4.0% (2.0% for the employer, 2.0% for the employee) and disability benefits were added and were not based on any contribution to the system. Also in 1956, women were allowed to retire at age 62 with reduced benefits (70%). In 1961, retirement at age 62 was extended to men, and the tax rate was increased to 6.0%.
Medicare was added in 1965 by the Social Security Act of 1965, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" program. (See List of Social Security legislation (United States).) Social Security was changed to withdraw funds from the independent "Trust" and put it into the General fund for additional congressional revenue.
Automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), not requiring legislation, began in 1975.
During the Carter administration, immigrants who had never paid into the system became eligible for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) benefits when they reached age 65. SSI is not a Social Security benefit, but a welfare program, because the elderly and disabled poor are entitled to SSI regardless of work history. Likewise, SSI is not an entitlement, because there is no right to SSI payments.
Congress has created, borrowed and spent Social Security surplus funds, that only working people and employers paid, to pay for Federal budget items. The Treasury Dept. has issued nearly 3 trillon dollars of worthless Treasury bonds as security for the money it borrowed and spent in place of increasing the income tax. These bonds are worthless because: I) they lack a redemption date which permits each Congress to pass this indebtedness on to the next Congress. II) The same employees and employers will need to be taxed again in order to redeem these bonds, so we are paying interest to ourselves (interest on taxes we have already paid).
The core of Social Security cannot be thought of as a handout, simply because it is not. The changes which liberals kept tacking on permitting illegals, non-contributors, disability, etc is what will destroy the system for the producers who have easily paid for its existence.
BUMP!