Contemplate what this statement means: "Most of our long term debt and deficit has to do with Social Security". It's a pretty banal falsehood. Social Security has never contributed a dime to any deficit or debt. It's fully self-funding and has been for the past 70-plus years. Even in the worst-case scenario, where we don't lift the cap on payroll taxes, Social Security won't contribute to the debt or deficit - it will merely pay 75% of due benefits after the year 2037.
What's truly stunning, and should be terrifying to the 85% of Americans who oppose Social Security cuts, is who believes that "most of our long term debt and deficit has to do with Social Security".
Whomever believes this statement to be true, or claims to believe it true, or would actually utter it, is not someone I trust to guard my Social Security. That person would have to be a liar, or someone looking for an excuse to raid Social Security to pay off unpaid bills. Unpaid bills that have come from lost revenues. Revenues lost from, say, tax cuts for millionaires.
The President of the United States believes that the fully-self-funding Social Security program contributes to the deficit and the debt. He said as much just the other day on NPR . He believes it so much that he wants to prove it to you by selling a you a tax compromise, which will, for the first time since I've been alive anyway, actually cause Social Security to contribute to the deficit. His compromise includes a 2% Social Security Payroll Tax "holiday", which will be made up from General Fund revenues.
You follow that? He is messing with the self-funding mechanism of Social Security, the political and fiscal bedrock of this incredibly successful program, to provide a tax cut which could just as easily come from the General Fund like Bush's famous rebate checks.
I don't trust him with my retirement insurance, do you?
from NPR:
OBAMA:Â Actually, I think that if you talk to economists, both conservative and liberal, what they'll say is the problem is not next year. The problem is, how are we dealing with our medium-term debt and deficit, and how are we dealing with our long-term debt and deficit? And most of that has to do with entitlements, particularly Social Security and Medicaid.
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I want to start a movement to get a class action law-suit against the government to take the power away from them so they can't make any decisions on Social Security. It is our money, we should have the say on what should or shouldn't be done with it. They want to play with someone's money let them play with their own retirement plan or better yet lets merge it and then see how eager they are to make cuts.
They have a habit of directing any national wealth they get their hands on to the top 2% wealthiest in this country!
alas, I"m not in that category...
he also made it funded by a capped tax EXACTLY so the rich couldn't complain they don't get heir fair cut!
now Obama wants to do away with that!
They said yesterday that the entitlements take 60% of the budget.
What they don't say is they keep cutting taxes so the amount in the budget is getting ridiculously low.
60% of $1000 is $600. 60% of 100,000 is 60,000. 30% of $1000 is $00. 30% of $100,000 is $30,000
The more they cut the tax income of the federal government the higher the percentage the entitlements will be.
It is another sneaky trick. Social Security should not be part of the budget, but when they start paying back the bonds, they will whine it is taking too much of the budget.
a tantrum.
As for the question you asked... I wouldn't trust Obama to give me correct change for a dollar. I've lost all faith in the guy, and will support just about any potential challengers in 2012. If the Democrats cannot produce a worthy challenger, I will never vote for that party again. They've given us nothing but Republican wannabes for as long as I can remember.
SOCIAL SECURITY CANNOT ADD TO DEFICIT
SOCIAL SECURITY CANNOT ADD TO DEFICT
"Social Security, by law, cannot add to the deficit. It is a separate program, paid into through FICA contributions, with benefits paid only from the revenue it raises. If the trust fund were to be exhausted and current contributions were not adequate to pay benefits, Social Security could not borrow from the general budget. Federal law prohibits Social Security from borrowing."
http://www.seolawfirm.com/2010/09/social-security-and-the-deficit-commission-myths-and-realities/
*imho*
This should be the main on this blog.
â– a robust foreign policy--hence the expansion in Afghanistan, and now sadly into Pakistan also
â– free trade--NAFTA and S Korea trade agreement
â– pro-growth
â– anti-union--think teachers, nurses, laborers
â– pro-corporation,
â– a belief in markets as the solution
â– de-regulation
â– privatizing education and support for charter schools
I guess we can add privatizing Social Security to that list.