Posted on 07/14/2017 8:53:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The government is out today with its annual update of Social Security’s sick finances:
--The system is $12.5 trillion under water, up from $11.4 trillion a year ago.
--Absent law changes, checks to retirees will have to be chopped 23% beginning in 2035.
--To fix just the retirement pay program, Congress could kick up the payroll tax by 2.8 percentage points. Fixing Medicare’s disastrous finances would be in addition.
--The retirement operation is running an $86 billion annual deficit. That’s the difference between the money coming in from Social Security’s share of payroll taxes (12.4% of covered payroll) and the money going out in monthly checks and in overhead.
Ponzi? That’s too kind an interpretation. A Ponzi scheme has old investors being paid off with money raised from new ones. In this case there isn’t enough cash coming in from new players to pay off the old ones. The $86 billion shortfall is being covered in traditional federal fashion, by drawing on general tax revenues and by printing money.
The trustees of the Social Security system put the grim news in as positive light as they can. They cheerily note that “asset reserves” grew from $2,813 billion at the end of 2015 to $2,848 billion at the end of 2016.
But these “reserves” are not a pile of saved capital in the form of stocks, bonds and mortgages. Rather, they are a bookkeeping entry in which the government borrows money from the government, and the government pretends to have “income” by collecting interest from…the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Agreed. Totally agree with you on lowering marginal rates.
Poll 1000 voters on that and I doubt 25% get it right.
RE: I fear the way they will solve the problem eventually will be to deny people who have other sources out income.
These same people who paid into social security their whole life will be denied social security they were promised because they also managed to save money in their 401K?
I for one will be against this.
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I think it all started when it was either Nixon or Johnson who decided to crack into SS to pay for other things like the Vietnam war.
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It started on day one and the first ‘recipient’. It began as a Ponzi; it has grown (as ALL govt does) into another tool to enslave the masses.
Nobody talks about the $120T+ in unfunded ‘liabilities’ (unconstitutional spending, IMO, is null/void).
Just another tax the sheeple have deluded themselves into believing they ‘pay for’ and thus ‘entitled’ to receive.
Recommend all fed swamp critters’ pay and allowances be drastically reduced immeditely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Inactive and retired!!!!!!!!!!!
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How about removing the cap. Why not pay SS on all income, not just the first 130K...or whatever it is.
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Sadly, more and more around here seeming to think MORE taxes/govt are ‘solutions’
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Two other solutions:
Print money to pay which may cause inflation
Sell assets to make payments.
Goverment land, oil/ mineral rights
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Aside from postal roads, forts, etc. the govt owns NOTHING to sell. Now, if we were to close down the palaces of govt, since those unconstitutional agencies/dept. are shut-down\defunded....
Those land/oil/mineral/etc. rights belong to the State(s) where they reside.
Because SS is being used to pay for disability, not retirement.
Because there is a cap on the amount one can draw out.
It was supposed to be fixed with the Dole tax increases in 86.
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IMO, removing the cap WILL happen. It’s crappy economics, but it garners 70%+ approval in opinion polls.
The Tobin Tax on Wall Street transactions will also be done, because that again polls well.
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Yes. Until one’s ox is gored, what matters to ‘the other guy (richer than me)’?
Printing money is the definition of inflation.
“Too many SSDI checks going out to people who are not really disabled.”
Exactly! When the allowed fat people to be eligible for benefits they openened the flood gates.
It’s like watching that episode of the Simpsons where Homer found out if he was overweight he could work from home. Off to the doctor for instructions on how to gain weight so he could avoid working! “Window to weight gain” was the quote about eating greasy food to become obese!!
I for one will be against this
You will have no say in the matter
The cap goes up almost every year now. If you increase the cap, you also increase the employers share of the contribution. Removing the cap altogether is a bad idea. It would amount to biggest tax increase in history that could hurt the economy in many ways. Already 80% of working people pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
In 2000 the cap was $76,200; in 2010 it was $106,800; and in 2017 it is $127,200.
SSI is not connected to SS funding.
There is no budget problem. Johnson broke the piggy bank and made the national treasury the new piggy bank. Therefore, as long as there is money to operate any part of the government there is sufficient money for Social Security. Stop the scare tactics.
Social Security and other fiscal disasters rarely came up under that a-hole Obama. I spit on them. The crooks belong in prison. Some need a rope and tree fro treason.Why should our children and their children suffer like this when we are gone?
of course, the rich exist because they have capital gains, etc, which the SS is not paid on....
perhaps the first step is to FORCE CONGRESS and all their minions onto SS and Medicare...
that way, what hurts us will hurt them...
“How about removing the cap. Why not pay SS on all income, not just the first 130K...or whatever it is.”
at which point SS would become just another redistributionist income tax, taxing the rich and paying the poor, because they won’t remove the payout cap when they remove the tax cap.
We’re $20,000,000,000,000 in the hole so there is nothing that is really solvent except the printing machines and money loaners. Is it no wonder the world wants to go digital (Fake Money:-)
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