While @DOGE chases exaggerated Social Security fraud, the real crisis is being ignored: unsustainable benefit promises and a trust fund filled with more debt.

@CatoInstitute’s new visual feature brings the program’s financial crisis to life🧵 Imagine a kid saving lawn-mowing money in a piggy bank for a new bike.

The parents take the cash, spend it, and leave IOUs.

When it’s time to buy the bike, there’s nothing there—just promises.

That’s the trust fund: IOUs from the federal government for money already spent.

The 2025 @JECRepublicans report sounds the alarm on America’s fiscal path🚨

It critiques Pres. Biden’s 2025 Econ. Report, offering an alternative fiscal vision: cut spending, not raise taxes.

We’re proud that the report draws extensively from @CatoInstitute scholars🧵 The report builds on @CatoInstitute research, including:

🔹 Emergency spending abuse (@LettDominik & me)
🔹 Runaway SocSec spending & the trust fund myth (my analysis)
🔹 Tax expenditures (@adamnmichel, @CatoEdwards & me )
🔹 $1T IRA subsidies (@ts_fisher & @JoshLoucks27)

Passing the so-called Social Security Fairness Act reveals how Washington approaches reform: ignore experts, cater to special interests, and leave younger taxpayers holding the bag. Buckle up; it’s about to get messy. 🧵 👇👇👇 With the trust fund running dry by ~2032, Congress is setting the stage for a multi-trillion-dollar general revenue bailout—aka, more debt. Instead of reform, expect superficial fixes like speculative stock investing (!). Yes, this is real.
🔗🔗👇👇
open.substack.com/pub/debtdispat…

It's tempting to believe that Social Security is an "earned benefit"—after all, that's what we've been sold, and it feels good to think of it as "our money." But the reality is more complex. It’s important that we look under the hood to see what’s really going on. 🧵 1/ Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system—a tax-and-transfer system—where today's workers fund today's retirees. 👷💸—>>👴💰

There’s no saving or investing that takes place. Payroll taxes are spent immediately. /2

House Democrats have released a completely unserious proposal to respond to the public health and economic crisis the nation is confronting as a result of COVID-19. Here are 5 red flags in the #HeroesAct dailysignal.com/2020/05/12/5-k… @Heritage 1) The bill would extend the misguided and harmful $600 unemployment bonus through January 2021, with an additional extension possible through March of next year.