Social Security faces a $32 trillion shortfall

[P@triot]

Every single time. Literally....every.....single....time. Throughout history, conservatives have done their homework, used sound data for projections, and accurately predicted exactly what would happen. And every time, Dumbocrats were too hungry for power to care.

Conservatives vehemently opposed Medicare and Medicaid in the late 1960's. They said it was unsustainable. Not only do we now currently sit with $19 trillion in national debt, but even Barack Obama himself and the Dumbocrats went around the nation in 2008 insisting that we needed "Obamacare" because healthcare costs were "unaffordable" and Medicare & Medicaid were devastating to the federal budget. They loudly proclaimed that something had to be done because the current situation was unsustainable. Well, conservatives told them that over 50 years ago!

And of course - conservatives warned about Obamacare as well. All of their warnings have come to fruition (it did cause people to lose their doctor, it did cause people to lose their health insurance, it did cost way more than projected by the lying Dumbocrats, and 17 of the 23 insurance exchanges have already collapsed and closed up shop after just a couple of short years).

But the real gem is Social Security. Like the other unconstitutional programs already mentioned, conservatives vehemently opposed Social Security in the late 1930's. As always, they said it was unsustainable. As always, they were right. A mind-boggling $32 trillion shortfall. You could tax the wealthy at 100% and it wouldn't even cover 1/32 of that....

Under the infinite horizon, Social Security will have $32.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities by 2090, $6.3 trillion more than last year's projection. (See the chart below.)

The infinite horizon calculation is the most important part of the trustees' annual report, said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor and co-author of "Get What's Yours," a best-seller about how to maximize claiming Social Security retirement benefits.

"We're not broke in 20 years to 30 years, we're broke now," Kotlikoff said. "All the bills have been kept off the books by Congress and presidential administrations for six decades."

Social Security faces a $32 trillion shortfall that will cut your benefit

 

[candycorn]

From the same source:

Under the infinite horizon, Social Security will have $32.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities by 2090, $6.3 trillion more than last year's projection.

 

[Claudette]

SS was fine till the Dems threw it in the General Fund. They have been robbing blind ever since.

 

[bullwinkle]

SS was fine till the Dems threw it in the General Fund. They have been robbing blind ever since.

I don't know who made the first raid into SS, transferring it from a lock-box fund to the General fund. Depends on party, I guess. Some say Johnson to cover VietNam and some say Reagan in a 1983 piece of legislation, but it's pretty clear the fund has been raided by every president since then. I remember back in the 90s a big fight (lost) to eliminate the caps on the SS deduction. Seemed sensible to me. The people most able to pay the deduction were exempted because they made over 100K, or whatever the cap was. They got a break, and those under the limit would pay it the rest of their working lives. That fight is still going on, isn't it? The fight to keep the caps and find another way to spare the well-off from the burden of taxes, that is?

 

[Claudette]

SS was fine till the Dems threw it in the General Fund. They have been robbing blind ever since.

I don't know who made the first raid into SS, transferring it from a lock-box fund to the General fund. Depends on party, I guess. Some say Johnson to cover VietNam and some say Reagan in a 1983 piece of legislation, but it's pretty clear the fund has been raided by every president since then. I remember back in the 90s a big fight (lost) to eliminate the caps on the SS deduction. Seemed sensible to me. The people most able to pay the deduction were exempted because they made over 100K, or whatever the cap was. They got a break, and those under the limit would pay it the rest of their working lives. That fight is still going on, isn't it? The fight to keep the caps and find another way to spare the well-off from the burden of taxes, that is?

They should take it out of the general fund and put it back in that lock box.

The Govt. raids our SS but you can bet your ass they don't raid theirs. They pay into a separate fund.

Johnson put it in the general fund in 1968 creating what they call a "unified Budget."

Worst thing they ever did to SS and those of us paying into it.

 

[P@triot]

From the same source:

Under the infinite horizon, Social Security will have $32.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities by 2090, $6.3 trillion more than last year's projection.

Yeah? And? I read the article and mentioned that in my opening post (which clearly you didn't read but commented on anyway).

 

[Rustic]

Typical of a socialist entitlement program… Epic fail

 

[NightFox]

They should take it out of the general fund and put it back in that lock box.

What "lock box"? All they're doing it now is taking the (fiat currency) Federal Reserve Notes (in digital form) and replacing it with another type of fiat currency in the form of Federal Government Bonds, either way it's just entries in a ledger backed by nothing but printing presses.

If you put Federal Reserve Notes in some mythical "lock box" all the miscreants in Washington will do is issue more bonds that the Federal Reserve will then "print" fiat currency to "buy" (aka monetizing debt) thus giving the drunken sailors in Washington the same amount of money to blow and hastening the increase in the Federal Government cumulative operating deficits (and the eventual collapse of the dollar), meaning at the end of the day you'll still end up with a "lock box" full of worthless currency you just get there faster because the federal debt service will increase at a faster rate.

 

[Claudette]

Well whatever you want to call it SS was secure till they put in the general fund.

Those assholes have been robbing it blind ever since.

 

[Mr Natural]

Time to raise (or even eliminate) the earnings cap.

 

[pwjohn]

How much in US Debt does the SSA hold ?

Answer; around four trillion or so.

 

[Old Rocks]

Just raising the cap to 250K would fix that, putting SS on all earnings would give the system a vast surplus, and enable us to give the seniors that have worked their whole lives for this nation a secure old age. But that is against the morals of the 'Conservatives'. Much better the trader that was making fun of 'Grandma Millie' while ripping us all off in the GOP's Enron scam retire with millions, than the lineman that worked night and day in the worst of weather to keep the power flowing be able to have a comfortable retirement.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

Just raising the cap to 250K would fix that, putting SS on all earnings would give the system a vast surplus, and enable us to give the seniors that have worked their whole lives for this nation a secure old age. But that is against the morals of the 'Conservatives'. Much better the trader that was making fun of 'Grandma Millie' while ripping us all off in the GOP's Enron scam retire with millions, than the lineman that worked night and day in the worst of weather to keep the power flowing be able to have a comfortable retirement.

Enron?

Good Lord....

 

[NightFox]

Well whatever you want to call it SS was secure till they put in the general fund.

It was never "secure" since it was a Ponzi scheme funded by fiat currency in the first place and thus was not sustainable (that which cannot go on forever must end), using the mythical lock box method all you'd have now is a "lock box" full of highly devalued fiat currency at least under the current system the SS "trust fund" is getting a small sliver of interest on the original contributions.

Those assholes have been robbing it blind ever since.

True but that has nothing to do with moving worthless pieces of paper from one ledger entry to another, it's in the printing of said pieces of paper and the distribution effects of injecting them into the money supply where the bulk of the "robbing" takes place.

See: the history of the Roman Denarius for a good historical example of the long term effects of massive currency devaluation.

 

[Pilate]

Social security is a pyramid scheme in the purest sense. We must release ourselves from the vice of greed and desire of money. It's going to hurt, but it's the right thing to do!

 

[Claudette]

Well whatever you want to call it SS was secure till they put in the general fund.

It was never "secure" since it was a Ponzi scheme funded by fiat currency in the first place and thus was not sustainable (that which cannot go on forever must end), using the mythical lock box method all you'd have now is a "lock box" full of highly devalued fiat currency at least under the current system the SS "trust fund" is getting a small sliver of interest on the original contributions.

Those assholes have been robbing it blind ever since.

True but that has nothing to do with moving worthless pieces of paper from one ledger entry to another, it's in the printing of said pieces of paper and the distribution effects of injecting them into the money supply where the bulk of the "robbing" takes place.

See: the history of the Roman Denarius for a good historical example of the long term effects of massive currency devaluation.

I agree it was and is a Ponzi scheme but the money was there until they put it in the general fund.

 

[NightFox]

Just raising the cap to 250K would fix that, putting SS on all earnings would give the system a vast surplus, and enable us to give the seniors that have worked their whole lives for this nation a secure old age. But that is against the morals of the 'Conservatives'. Much better the trader that was making fun of 'Grandma Millie' while ripping us all off in the GOP's Enron scam retire with millions, than the lineman that worked night and day in the worst of weather to keep the power flowing be able to have a comfortable retirement.

Uh-Huh, that's surely the answer , give the prolific money wasters in Washington MORE MONEY TO WASTE .....

On the other hand we could do something sensible and repeal the Ponzi scheme before it comes crashing down on everybody who was foolish enough to count on Social Security as a viable source of retirement income.

 

[Siete]

Social security is a pyramid scheme in the purest sense. We must release ourselves from the vice of greed and desire of money. It's going to hurt, but it's the right thing to do!

what a moron ^^^^^^^^^

 

[NightFox]

Well whatever you want to call it SS was secure till they put in the general fund.

It was never "secure" since it was a Ponzi scheme funded by fiat currency in the first place and thus was not sustainable (that which cannot go on forever must end), using the mythical lock box method all you'd have now is a "lock box" full of highly devalued fiat currency at least under the current system the SS "trust fund" is getting a small sliver of interest on the original contributions.

Those assholes have been robbing it blind ever since.

True but that has nothing to do with moving worthless pieces of paper from one ledger entry to another, it's in the printing of said pieces of paper and the distribution effects of injecting them into the money supply where the bulk of the "robbing" takes place.

See: the history of the Roman Denarius for a good historical example of the long term effects of massive currency devaluation.

I agree it was and is a Ponzi scheme but the money was there until they put it in the general fund.

Don't you get it ? The "money" is still there, it's just in the form Federal Government Bonds instead of Federal Reserve Notes, aka taking one piece of paper that's backed by nothing and replacing it with a different piece of paper that's backed by nothing.

In the end you get the same thing; a box full of worthless paper.

 

[Pilate]

Social security is a pyramid scheme in the purest sense. We must release ourselves from the vice of greed and desire of money. It's going to hurt, but it's the right thing to do!

what a moron ^^^^^^^^^

A stellar use of ad-hominem!