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An interesting takeThe doubts aren’t difficult to understand. “If you listen to any number of the news outlets, they’ll tell you the system is going broke,” says Brown. “Every year I get a mailing from Social Security detailing what I can expect in benefits, and they say themselves that it will be bankrupt around 2040 and that they are going to be paying out more than we’re paying in. So it’s not fear, it’s math.”
But Social Security isn’t going bankrupt — far from it. The system was intended — and has always been — a pay-as-you-go system, with taxes collected from workers used to pay current retirees. But Social Security also is sitting on a $2.5 trillion Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) that has been stockpiled to fund the looming wave of baby boomer retirements; that fund is projected to be sufficient to pay benefits until about 2037.
This is quite true. When I first began my career, one of my mentors (He was on the board of directors for our credit union and I was young so I listened) took me aside and said 'save all you can because SS may not be there when I retire and it damn sure won't be there when you do'. I took him, and others, at their word and saved every which way I could. Contributed the max in every plan offered, as well as something as simple as a plain old saving account at my credit union. Got lucky in some investments and did good on others.Article said:Pessimism about Social Security among the young isn’t new. “It’s a very longstanding trend,” says Virginia Reno, vice president for income security at the National Academy of Social Insurance. “It was true in a survey we did in 1979, and another in 1991.
Social Security is not 'attached' to the Treasury, FICA funds are use to buy Treasury Bonds, those funds are put into the Treasury. If you buy Treasury Bonds, the same thing happens with the dough.Until Social Security is detached from the Treasury - it will continue to be a burden on this country. The countermeasures used to keep it afloat are nothing more than fingers plugging the leaks in a dam ready to break. According to a few sources the Treasury had to borrow 15 out of the last 25 months to pay out Social Security. It's been used as a credit card for a long time and there's no quick fix.
Allan Sloan - Social Security, the trust fund and funny money
But Social Security also is sitting on a $2.5 trillion Social Security Trust Fund (SSTF) that has been stockpiled to fund the looming wave of baby boomer retirements; that fund is projected to be sufficient to pay benefits until about 2037.
SS will have to be ditched soon if we want to pay off our debt
It's nice to know we are screwed but we aren't completely screwed until 2037.
ditched? i don't know if it can be. means tested certainly. also tied to lower growth rates, such as inflation, rather than COLA.
the real gorilla in the room is Medicare.
Emphasis added.Social Security History FAQs Internet Myths II
Q1. Which political party took Social Security from the independent trust fund and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A1: There has never been any change in the way the Social Security program is financed or the way that Social Security payroll taxes are used by the federal government. The Social Security Trust Fund was created in 1939 as part of the Amendments enacted in that year. From its inception, the Trust Fund has always worked the same way. The Social Security Trust Fund has never been "put into the general fund of the government."
Most likely this question comes from a confusion between the financing of the Social Security program and the way the Social Security Trust Fund is treated in federal budget accounting. Starting in 1969 (due to action by the Johnson Administration in 1968) the transactions to the Trust Fund were included in what is known as the "unified budget." This means that every function of the federal government is included in a single budget. This is sometimes described by saying that the Social Security Trust Funds are "on-budget." This budget treatment of the Social Security Trust Fund continued until 1990 when the Trust Funds were again taken "off-budget." This means only that they are shown as a separate account in the federal budget. But whether the Trust Funds are "on-budget" or "off-budget" is primarily a question of accounting practices--it has no effect on the actual operations of the Trust Fund itself.
Haven't you heard? ObamaCare fixed that.You've got that right. Something major needs to be done with Medicare/Medicaid.
Emphasis added.
Yet it is full of IOU's from congress because they see it as a slush fund
You said there was no SS Trust Fund, then you quote from the SS administration which says you are full of ****. I'm loving it.
Get this concept through your head, U.S. securities are not IOU's and that's what the SS Trust fund is - Treasury securities - and are guaranteed as to both principal and interest by the Federal government.
Could you please explain to me the difference between an IOU and a security?You said there was no SS Trust Fund, then you quote from the SS administration which says you are full of ****. I'm loving it.
Get this concept through your head, U.S. securities are not IOU's and that's what the SS Trust fund is - Treasury securities - and are guaranteed as to both principal and interest by the Federal government.
Could you please explain to me the difference between an IOU and a security?
.
An IOU is a promissory note, a security is actually an asset and payable upon demand. Daily FICA inflow is used to buy securities and the money is put into the Treasury, when benefits are paid money from the Treasury is used pay the SS administration for the securities they hold. The resulting monies are distributed as benefits.
If they were IOU's, they could remain that way forever and never paid. The claim that the SS Trust fund is a bunch of worthless IOU's is BS.
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