It seems even a lot of people on the left have been suckered in by the republicans scam talk and lies in regards to social security.
Social Security has not overspent and added to debt. It does NOT add to government debt.
Social Security has not overspent and added to debt. It does NOT add to government debt.
Social Security interest earned surplus money has been added to the general fund and replaced with special treasury bonds that the government OWES social security because it BELONGS to social security
That money was borrowed against it to spend on everything else but social security even though it belongs ONLY to social security.
Now government is in a bind and do not have the money to honor the treasury bonds they used to replace the surplus interest earned by SS even though that money does belong to social security.
A large % of the American public is not willing to pay enough other taxes to fund everything else that needs to be funded. Because of that government is not willing to raise other taxes to cover all the other spending makes paying SS what government owes SS unrealistic.
over 30 yrs all main gains have gone only to top income, so top is the only sector that actually can afford to pay more taxes . When you calculate local, state, federal taxes top income is the only sector that has actually gotten tax cuts instead of tax increases for over 30 yrs
Other options so that government does not have to pay back the Social Security interest money they borrowed against to cover other spending would be to lift the SS cap to a higher amount and/or a small payroll tax increase, or some combination of that.
True that in the future SS principle paid in won't cover all that needs to be paid w/o using interest money that SS has earned over the yrs due to number of retirees people living longer. GOV would have to make good SS interest money earned borrowed against that BELONGS to SS
also true in the future it is projected that there will again be a lot more paying in than needs to be paid out when baby boomer retirees are all deceased the workforce will once again far exceed retiree numbers .
and interest earned when baby boomers years are over won't be needed as SS would again be generating a large surplus that gov can borrow against and spend on other stuff again.
Medicare is another issue, gov actually does spend more on medicare than what is paid in in Medicare taxes so that does add some to the debt. Medicare tax has not fully funded Medicare and generated a surplus like Social Security taxes have fully funded SS and created a surplus.
We do have a serious problem Houston , but the problem is the large % of American public not willing to pay that do have enough income to pay more taxes to fund everything that needs to be funded along with the large percent NOT ABLE to pay more taxes due to not enough income.
Inequality has created this mess and inequality continues to exacerbate it .
Too many of the American public is not willing to accept you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip and that taxing over half our workforce more that are low paid would be trying to do just that,
Too many of the American public is not willing to accept you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip and that taxing over half our workforce more that are low paid would be trying to do just that,
People are also not willing to accept that all the people that are wealthier and paid much better and could pay more taxes have only been enabled to make much more because of all those that are paid much less. Labor creates capital .
In the future either greed will win & the 50% lower paid of our workforce over the yrs that has enabled the other 50% to be much higher paid will get totally screwed or people will accept that inequality needs to be reduced to a more reasonable level a more realistic pay scale.
The latest #GOPTaxScam just made this problem much much more serious. And if we ARE ever going to do Medicare for all that many scream about FIRST seems to me it would be wise to actually fully fund what Medicare we already have.
SS obligation for Treasury bonds that replace surplus interest earned is added the natl debt tally . But it is important to note it did NOT contribute to the debt that money borrowed against SS surplus belongs to SS .
