Social Security Trust Fund Scam
Dear editor:
Just imagine. You are planning your retirement and decide to give money on a regular basis to your brother-in-law to hold and invest for you so you will have a nest egg when you reach your “golden years.” He gives you an IOU each and every year for your investment and even gives you an IOU at the same time for your annual interest earned. What you don’t know is that he is spending this money on his own needs and really has no intention of ever paying you back. In fact, when you demand your money at retirement time he informs you that you will either have to take less in return or give him more so he can pay you back. Sound strange? Feel like you would never allow that to happen? Don’t kid yourself. It’s been happening to you for over 50 years and our presidents and congress have been that brother-in-law.
Right now, our, or what we thought was ours, Social Security Trust Fund holds IOUs from the U.S. Treasury for over 2 trillion dollars. How did this happen? The government “borrows” this money every year to use for its general budget expense and therefore does not have to go out and borrow elsewhere. As a result it does not have to increase taxes or cut back on its general spending. In fact, it allowed President Bush and some of his predecessors to give a tax cut at the trust funds expense. In return it gave the fund IOUs for the money not needed, at that time, to pay benefits.
After all this 50 year scam being perpetrated on us, President Bush and many of his compatriots are claiming that “Social Security is going bankrupt.” But that is not the immediate problem, even though something has to be done to shore up the account in about 35 to 40 years. It is our government’s inability to pay back the money to the fund that will be needed to pay benefits that the American public is entitled to that is the real culprit in trouble. Social Security shouldn’t have to cut back on benefits or raise more money through withholding taxes, it’s the general budget controlled by Congress and the president that needs adjusting. And it shouldn’t be at the expense of education or medical care or other entitlements that are necessary. We need to take a long look at those tax cuts for the rich that the president wants to make permanent and our ballooning defense costs caused by his pre-emptive war in Iraq.
It’s time for our government to stop being our scamming brother-in-law and give us back our money
Just imagine. You are planning your retirement and decide to give money on a regular basis to your brother-in-law to hold and invest for you so you will have a nest egg when you reach your “golden years.” He gives you an IOU each and every year for your investment and even gives you an IOU at the same time for your annual interest earned. What you don’t know is that he is spending this money on his own needs and really has no intention of ever paying you back. In fact, when you demand your money at retirement time he informs you that you will either have to take less in return or give him more so he can pay you back. Sound strange? Feel like you would never allow that to happen? Don’t kid yourself. It’s been happening to you for over 50 years and our presidents and congress have been that brother-in-law.
Right now, our, or what we thought was ours, Social Security Trust Fund holds IOUs from the U.S. Treasury for over 2 trillion dollars. How did this happen? The government “borrows” this money every year to use for its general budget expense and therefore does not have to go out and borrow elsewhere. As a result it does not have to increase taxes or cut back on its general spending. In fact, it allowed President Bush and some of his predecessors to give a tax cut at the trust funds expense. In return it gave the fund IOUs for the money not needed, at that time, to pay benefits.
After all this 50 year scam being perpetrated on us, President Bush and many of his compatriots are claiming that “Social Security is going bankrupt.” But that is not the immediate problem, even though something has to be done to shore up the account in about 35 to 40 years. It is our government’s inability to pay back the money to the fund that will be needed to pay benefits that the American public is entitled to that is the real culprit in trouble. Social Security shouldn’t have to cut back on benefits or raise more money through withholding taxes, it’s the general budget controlled by Congress and the president that needs adjusting. And it shouldn’t be at the expense of education or medical care or other entitlements that are necessary. We need to take a long look at those tax cuts for the rich that the president wants to make permanent and our ballooning defense costs caused by his pre-emptive war in Iraq.
It’s time for our government to stop being our scamming brother-in-law and give us back our money
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 12:29 PM
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