I’m Not Making This Up!
I am not imaginative enough. During a Congressional hearing yesterday, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said he is not allowed to talk about Social Security solvency issues, as per “explicit instructions from the President.” All questions about solvency are supposed to go to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Social Security Cash Flow Deficit
This is a very worrisome graph — I will reach the age for Social Security and Medicare eligibility just as the Social Security cash flow deficit reaches its trough.
To put things in perspective, 3 percetange points of payroll tax is equal to about 20% of the current tax. So eliminating the deficit shown above would require a 20% higher payroll tax on the working population.
John have you ever heard this phrase: Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil? That’s what the Obama Administration is hoping the rest of us will do.
I was at this hearing. Mr. Astrue was asked by Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and at least one other member of the committee about solvency. Astrue repeatedly answered that he was under instructions from the President not to discuss the Social Security solvency issue. He wasn’t even allowed to offer his opinion.
Stunning graphic. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Everyone keeps helping themselves to this money and then they wonder why it is going broke. George W announced on TV when we got into the war with Afghanistan that he was going to send troops over there and he needed to take our social security money, so far he is the only one who actually admitted it, there has been an I.O.U. in there for years. 500, billion from Medicare and now soemthing is going on with social security, do the name “Genocide” ring a bell? How about population control, culling the herd, all of these apply to what wil happen to seniors if Obama has his way, just look at this health care plan of his, not a thing good for seniors. This is something he could have shored up with his stimulus bill money which is still MIA, medicaid for the poor, I would have paid extra taxes for that and a little higher rate for medicare , I would have paid for that and that would have been it, but there is no control or national ID card with that so noooo. This is what Hitler did when he took over, a health care plan for all with a national ID card, same with Fidel Castro, has Obama no shame?
The graph is stunning. It is also disturbing. And we’re not suppoed to talk about it? What planet is the president living on.
Another picture that is worth a thousand words.
Madeleine wrote about paying taxes to go to specific causes.
Unfortunately, taxes are for the general welfare, so even “earmarked” taxes go into the Treasury’s General Fund.
From their, your Social Security and Medicare payments turn into “accounting credits,” and get deposited into a custodial account in the Treasury.
From the custodial account, the mathematical “assets” are transferred into the various trust funds.
The numbers in the trust funds represent the amounts that can be withdrawn from the Treasury’s General Fund, without an annual appropriation.
All the accounting credits can be loaned to the Treasury’s General Fund, so that the Treasury can spend money on various wars and other general welfare exepnses.
Even though all the accounting credits are loaned out, the trust funds can still be used to draw down from the Treasury, as long as the trust funds show a positive balance.
How can the trust funds show a positive balance, if all the accounting credits have been loaned to the Treasury?
Well, the Treasury is the debtor and the trust funds are the creditor, so it all nets out.
Easy to understand, right?
Don Levit
So here’s another “fun” scenario:
We’re on a giant ship that has just struck an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic. There’s a rumor that we might sink.
Only the government would address that problem with the answer, “Please submit the form entitled WILL WE SINK?, in triplicate, to the ship’s captain. You can expect your response by mail in six to eight weeks.”
Fidel Castro still have some good legacies despite his not so good repuation.*~”