Posted on 06/07/2015 7:02:37 PM PDT by BradtotheBone
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said a Social Security Trust Fund does not exist and that the U.S. is “way underestimating” the size of its national debt.
“The notion that we have a trust fund is nonsense – that trust fund has no meaning whatsoever except for the fact as an all private fund to benefit programs, if it runs out of money, you can only pay out in cash flows that come in but the probability that will happen is not particularly high,” Greenspan recently told the Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, PJ Media reported.
“That means the trust fund is a meaningless instrument that has no function … it’s exactly the same thing as current expenses,” he said.
The United States Social Security Administration collects payroll taxes and uses the money collected to pay Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance benefits via trust funds.
When the program runs a surplus, there will be excess funding available for the Social Security Administration that year. The excess funds are diverted to one of the trust funds.
The money in the trust fund is used by the treasury in the form of treasury bonds. The treasury bonds provide interest on the money in the trust funds, and if the program sees a deficit, the excess funds from previous years plus any interest earned is used to pay beneficiaries. The trust funds do not represent a legal obligation to Social Security program recipients, and Congress could cut or raise taxes on such benefits if it chooses.
The trust fund that supports Social Security's disability program is projected to run out of money late next year, triggering automatic benefit cuts, unless Congress acts.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
(His wife thinks it’s all Bush’s fault.)
I seriously doubt he married her for her brains.
L
What's to understand ?
It's a glorified Ponzi scam
Cause he broke AlGore’s “lock box”....
If all you has d was phone, electric, food etc and no credit card(s) and mortgage .... you could just say no to working for someone else
The democrat solution is to bring in a few million more third world “citizens” for the government to support. Guess the PC Greenspan won’t talk about that...
LBJ did that in 68
Bush adding $4 trillion was “irresponsible and unpatriotic” according to Hussein Obama.
It’s not news anymore to the liberal media now that Obama is in office.
What does his wife think of when he blew off Brooksley Born’s concerns?
Oops.
Bump
It’s been broken since Roosevelt conceived it.
A giant Ponzi scheme.
So how is it you never said that when you were head of the “federal reserve” buffoon? You could have said to our feckless leaders: hey the debt is getting out of hand and I refuse to print all that inflationary fiat money. Why now and not then? The answer is obvious.
Money.
L
including the three times I said it, I think it has been stated 1 million five hundred thousand times on Free Republic that there is no such thing as a trust fund. they could have just come here to find out. But you guys wouldn’t believe all of the baboons that think there is one.well actually you would lol
This from the guy who understood the dangers of a fiat currency and who stood behind the gold standard...
...and then flip-flopped when he was given the opportunity to become the head of the Fed?
Really Alan?
You think we give a crap about what you have to say at this point...WHEN YOU HELPED TO BURDEN FUTURE GENERATIONS WITH THIS SAME DEBT CREATED BY KEYNESIAN SPENDERS IN THE GOVERNMENT WHO SEEK MONEY PRINTERS IN THE FED TO SUPPORT THEIR SPENDING...THE SAME DEBT YOU NOW CONDEMN?
FU Greenspan.
Hey Greenspan, what about your idiotic comment that we can always print money to pay on the debt?
Duh.
Include all federal, state, and local pensions & such : over $ 200 Trillion ?
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