It should be ended immediately, but it's not possible to 'give your money back', because it was collected and pooled as general revenue according to the Supreme Court, and spent without any strings attached. You enjoyed those social security benefits already in the form of services our government provides from tax revenue annually.
Greenspan is trying to head off the creation of mandatory structural deficits (social security taxes becoming less than expenses in a few years, requiring borrowing at a minimum, or the allocation of other or proposed taxes). He knows what happens when you increase the SSI taxes, because that's what was done previously when he chaired Reagan's commission on the subject. He knows Congress will blow the money and it will just end up increasing the share of GDP seized and allocated by government. He brought this up last March, he's brought it up plenty in the past. It can't be ignored much longer before it starts increasing deficit and impacts Greenspan's ability to manipulate the printing of dollars.
At the end of the day, the government can just print checks to cover those rising SSI costs, but Greenspan is trying to head off the dangerous inflationary pressure he sees from it. I think he wants the reins of money creation in the Fed's hands more tha in the hand's of Congress, but I don't know if they'll act.
We're too big to Weimar, right?
