.... sarc
I think this is meaningless since we pay no interest on this debt - other than, perhaps, to just add some nominal interest to the number stored on some computer in D.C. We don’t write checks to anybody for any interest due the SS fund. No money leaves the Treasury
Correct me if I’m wrong about this.
Those who care about our country know the Trust Fund is a bushel basket of IOUs signed by Obama and the last 5 presidents. The IOUs are redeemed from current revenue and more borrowing by the Feds. Pretty soon, these entitlement programs will suck up all current revenue and borrowing, leaving nothing for defense, internal improvements and the rest of what government is supposed to do under the Constitution. The Paul Ryan Budget Plan or something close to it is absolutely necessary if the USA is to survive.
There is no damn fund! Every cent of the money collected in FICA payments each year is used to pay retirees, SSI, etc. and anything left over is spent by the damned government.
This year, outlays for SS payments to retirees and SSI outstripped FICA payments from workers - leaving nothing for government to piss away. Whatever 'fund' there is a paper accounting myth that was spent long ago. No fund, no money, no hope, period.
Anyone who thinks this is all going to be solvent for 5 years let alone until 2036 is a very gullible person. It is already not solvent without massive borrowing. These kinds of stories just make me mad.
How do we figure out how much has been siphoned off from social security taxes paid by the worker and the employer over the years. We are now at the point where the taxes barely cover the payments, but that hasn’t been the case for a LOT of years. I don’t know the exact, or even approximate, figures but I DO know if the money had been set aside as it was supposed to be we would not be in the fix we are now. And, just as importantly, if government had not had access to that money to use to disguise the deficit spending that was proliferating we wouldn’t have the national debt we do now.
I consider it very wrong to blame those who have paid into a fund their entire working lives, matched by their employers, for the problems the system now has.
And what really angers me is that we have no recourse now and no way to punish those who STOLE the money. And then they blame us as though we are somehow being unfair to simply ask them to do what they said they would. We kept our end of the bargain!
Truster = believers in the Social Security Trust Fund.
There are people who swear that there is an actual Trust Fund. They are called “Trusters”.