What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund?

Two spaces between periods.

 

No one has ever shown that that I have seen.

To the contrary, this analysis by the Center for Tax Justice shows that as of 2006, 1/3 of the tax cut benefit went to the richest 1% of Americans.

http://www.ctj.org/pdf/gwbdata.pdf

70% of the benefit went to the richest 20%.

8.8% went to the poorest 20%.

 

Thats easy... Clinton spent it all to claim he balanced the budget.

See Social Security is off budget spending. They can take money from social security and spend it, and then not include those liabilities in the debt. Since after all, and according to some here, our government doesn't really have that money anyway. Of course it doesn't, it spent it all.

Every week, every worker in this country takes real dollars and hands those real dollars over to the government in the form of Social Security and Medicare programs through various taxes like the payroll tax.

Thats real money. If it wasn't going to government, it would still be given to me. Cold hard cash.

So... where exactly IS all of that money?

 

It goes right back in to the economy.

 

So they spent real dollars then?

 

Yep, real people received real dollars and went to spend those real dollars in the economy giving other people incomes in which to pay more SS taxes. It's all relative.

 

Once again, you are very mistaken, Iriemon.

Income tax cuts did not cause the deficits.

Increased social spending on wasteful programs by the foolish Democrats cause the deficits.

^



Obama and the Democrats took total control of the House and Senate in 2008, and things have gone 'to hell in a handbasket' ever since.The foolish Democrats are debt addicts and just don't know when to stop spending! With the Federal debt of $14.7 trillion amounting to $185,000 for every family of four, at some point we have to concede that the federal checkbook has its limits. Cuts in spending are only a start, other programs need to be abolished or radically changed.

 

Our $2.6 trillion and our other $800 billion of the postal service has been consumed by the capitalism of corporations and investment bankers, and insuracne corporations. with Barny Frank, Sommers, and the other two senators, they have given it away to the banks and insurance companies.

 

James, why do you keep posting that same chart over and over again when you know it is out of date and inaccurate?

Obama was not president in 2002 when the surplus turned into a deficit. Bush was. That was the year after he passed his largest tax cut.

 

When did Barney Frank give $800 billion to banks? Cite to credible source please.

You guys come up with the most amazing stuff. I can only presume you are being fed it by the conservative propaganda media.

 

That is simply not true. Liabilities to trust funds like social security are reflected in the public debt.

Keeping granny off the streets and providing her with health care.

 

There was a typo in this post.

The last sentence should have said:

0.8% went to the poorest 20%

 

I like your post, James Cessna

There is further reading I think you might like, on that topic.

http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...us-obamanomics-aint-pretty-5.html#post4397030
http://www.politicalforum.com/lates...ck-obama-put-something-table.html#post4259204
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...a-party-has-gotten-our-aaa-3.html#post4299488
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...-america-has-wasted-billions.html#post3949195
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...412-obama-laughing-failure-2.html#post4142512
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...h-obama-who-bigger-spender-9.html#post4259278
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ng-more-same-failed-policies.html#post4440980
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...99156-how-deficit-got-big-33.html#post4262851
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ually-willing-defend-obama-4.html#post4259265
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ncrease-obama-22-increase-11.html#post4328553

 

you are very mistaken, Iriemon.

We are not talking about 2002. We are talking about 2008.

Obama and the Democrats took total control of the House and Senate in 2008, and things have gone 'to hell in a handbasket' ever since.The foolish Democrats are debt addicts and just don't know when to stop spending! With the Federal debt of $14.7 trillion amounting to $185,000 for every family of four, at some point we have to concede that the federal checkbook has its limits. Cuts in spending are only a start, other programs need to be abolished or radically changed.



"Vote for Rick Perry! ... Vote for Rick Perry!"

 

You are very mistaken, James.

Here is my post to which you responded:

It said nothing about Obama or 2008.

As your chart shows, there was a surplus when Bush took office. The income tax cuts were passed in 2001, not 2008.

Bush and the Republicans took the rare opportunity of a surplus budget and squander it with tax cuts and one "mistaken" war and one botched one.

Remember in 2000 when the biggest budget problem we had was whether the surpluses would be too big?

 

You are very correct, James Cessna!

http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...us-obamanomics-aint-pretty-5.html#post4397030
http://www.politicalforum.com/lates...ck-obama-put-something-table.html#post4259204
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...a-party-has-gotten-our-aaa-3.html#post4299488
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...-america-has-wasted-billions.html#post3949195
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...412-obama-laughing-failure-2.html#post4142512
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...h-obama-who-bigger-spender-9.html#post4259278
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ng-more-same-failed-policies.html#post4440980
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...99156-how-deficit-got-big-33.html#post4262851
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ually-willing-defend-obama-4.html#post4259265
http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...ncrease-obama-22-increase-11.html#post4328553[/QUOTE]

 

The SS trust fund's $2.6Trillion surplus is safely invested in interest bearing US Treasury Bonds.

 

On the issue, I wrote this to my local paper as a letter to the editor...

"Of Social Security and Talking Points

Today, 8 Sept, I was amused to read the same identical DNC talking point in two different letters. The talking point states “The Social Security program can pay all promised benefits for another 25 years…” Sounds good. Would be good, if the math worked. Unfortunately…

This year the SS tax brought in less money than the SS system sent out in benefits. Where does the extra money come from? The SS trust fund. And what is the SS trust fund? It is a drawer full of IOU’s. For decades the SS program brought in more money than current recipients received, trillions more. Where did all that money go? Congress spent it and replaced the actual money with IOU’s.

Where does the money come from to pay for the IOU’s? Right from all our other taxes. That means that the difference between what we receive in SS taxes and what we send out as benefits comes from the general fund, the same money that used to pay for government, defense, education, pensions, transportation, etc.

For every dollar we use to pay the IOU’s we lose a dollar for some other program.

Fact and math."

 

Come on now...that is a bold claim when no one has ever audited the thing so we have no idea at all where the money goes or how it was spent.

 

It's audited every year. The auditing Ron Paul is talking about is auditing what the Fed's do to make their monetary decisions. The Fed is as transparent as can be when it comes to their finances. They keep some of their decision making processes private, first to not show their hand completely to the global economy, second to keep their decisions away from the political process.

Would you rather have politicians in control of monetary policy?

 

You mean it goes right back into government, which is not the same thing.

 

You mean the money disappears in the magical abyss?

 

I have heard government called a 'black hole' and I think this applies as well...



but this one is better

 

The black hole was the sound of the housing market collapsing along with the destruction of the construction industry.

We were successful in plugging the hole.

The question now is how to get out of it.

 

We didn't 'plug it', we simply slowed the crash till it hit a bottom, as it was going to eventually do. The problem is, this bottom might not be THE bottom as we still have many, many times more foreclosures and distressed properties waiting to go on the market than is normal.