Ok. So, the government withholds more. That’s going to save social security? No way. Our official debt is $16 Trillion and unfunded liabilities are considerably more than that. All they are doing is moving money around and printing fiat money. All the accounting tricks in the world are not going to save social security — even if you accept the premise that the Federal government should be doing that anyhow.
To make our government solvent is going to require something that most people are not willing to accept -real cuts in Federal spending and government policies which encourage business investment. There is nothing in this fiscal agreement nor in the President’s ideological leanings that will fix our long-term problems.
So, they can withhold more from our paychecks to keep up the facade that social security will be preserved, but they will only delay its demise for a short while. We need to transition away from these large government programs and towards self-sufficiency. However, everything I see is moving in the exact opposite direction.
You’re correct of course.
The whole thing is a joke. Just eliminate SS withholding completely and let Bernanke and Geithner make it appear electronically.