That's a bit of misinterpretation of the system, spawned by political rhetoric, to which, it appears, many are susceptible. Social Security surpluses have always been counted against budget deficits; its is "cash on hand" for the treasury. It didn't become a political football until the 1990s when the projection of the eventual crossing of money coming in with money going out became apparent. The use of Social Security positive balances to offset the Federal deficit, however, is not new. Remember, however, it is an assured entitlement, so that sleight of hand with math, however fuzzy and obscured, does not mean the system is being somehow robbed any more than any other part of the Federal budget. If you had an overdraft in your own checking account, but had some funds in a savings account, would you not transfer funds to correct that matter? The government does the same, but the overdrafting never ends for Uncle Sam.Franinskirts wrote:Social Security is paid for by the working people AS AN INSURANCE policy towards retirement. When it was started only those who paid into it were the ones to draw from it. It was not a government give away program. It was solvent when all other programs the government had were broke. The money could not be used for anything but retirement of the individuals who paid into it..Orange Apple wrote:Do you have a Social Security card? That makes you a card-carrying socialist.Uncle Al wrote:Socialism, in any form, doesn't work
Then congress got tired of seeing all of this money they could not touch and moved it in to the general fund at the same time telling the people it will not be used for anything other than it's intended purpose. It did not take long for them to start "borrowing" from the funds. Now after all of the phony baloney from the government everyone gets a social security check wither they paid into it or not, even illegal aliens. Just another pile of government Bullsh*t.
Fred
The real thing to keep in mind, and this is a fact that self-proclaimed Fiscal Conservatives rarely voluntarily admit, is that the size of their darling programs, the so-called Political Untouchables - Social Security, Medicare, and Defense - dwarf everything else. Even if you eliminate ALL OTHER FEDERAL SPENDING except those three Untouchables, the Federal budget is STILL NOT BALANCED! That's how big those programs are! Yet the Republican politicians still run a smoke screen, claiming they will protect all of them, but somehow cut Federal spending. Where? And what? Certainly nothing that benefits their donors, and clearly not nearly enough to fix the deficits. But the worst aspect of the rhetoric is the continued con-game they pull on that willfully-ignorant portion of the electorate that believes, in a state of voluntary self-delusion, there are some huge welfare and spending programs where all the tax revenue goes, and if we only ended those everything will be hunky-dorry. Well, guess what...these are the huge spending programs, and you are part of them.
So, you can keep drawing those SS deposits, keep giving that Medicare card to your doctor, and keep demanding we march the US Military all over Earth to clean up Muslim Terrorists (neglecting to note that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter) until the bills bring down the system like a house of cards. Or you can demand a reasonable course of action from your politicians and call them out on their ********. I am not anti-Social Security or anti-Medicare; I will be on both soon enough. And I'm happy we keep a viable National Defense. But we have to pull our heads out of the sand and stop pointing fingers of blame at imaginary offenders, our propaganda-driven Quixotic jousting at windmills, when our leaders don't have the guts to confront us with the harsh realities the country faces, but rather keep pretending that they can cut their way out of the fiscal mess. They can't.
