Social Security's Current Deficit, and Why the Trust Fund Doesn't Help

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Monday August 30, 2010 · 6:04 PM PDT

2010/08/30 · 18:04

I'm a progressive in favor of Social Security. I'm also an investment banker with many years experience in finance. I'm writing this because it appears to me that Social Security does raise issues that require answers now, and that the Social Security Trust Fund doesn't provide any solutions but merely creates confusion. Social Security may be facing something it hasn't before -- annual cash deficits, where SS benefits to be paid out during the year are greater than SS taxes collected in that year. Accordingly, a decision must be made about where the federal government should find the cash to fund a such deficits. And there aint no cash in the Trust Fund.

Poll

47 votes Show Results

Does the SS Trust Fund provide a source of cash that the federal government can draw on to pay SS benefits?

47 votes Vote Now!

Does the SS Trust Fund provide a source of cash that the federal government can draw on to pay SS benefits?

No, your diary is correct.

16 votes

Yes. Your ignorance is profound.

31 votes

Fantasy Joint Reid Pelosi Speech, signed by the rest

CTLarry

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Tuesday June 26, 2007 · 4:49 AM PDT

2007/06/26 · 04:49

I must admit I've given up following the daily ins and outs of Congress, but I do believe that Reid and Pelosi and the rest of them are playing it all way too soft. The people voted in Dems to get us out of Iraq and establish accountability, and the Dems - with minor exceptions by the likes of the excellent Russ Feingold, simply haven't been doing it. Maybe they never will. Maybe they're too much in the pockets of lobbyists. But if they really want to win, to get things done, and to get their approval ratings back up they've got to get tough. And here's a joint speech I'd like to hear.

Poll

11 votes Show Results

Why don't Reid and Pelosi do this?

11 votes Vote Now!

Why don't Reid and Pelosi do this?

Because, although it would work, they're afraid.

9 votes

Because the American people wouldn't back them.

0 votes

Because the American people don't even think this is grounds for impeachment

1 vote

Because the GOP spin machine really is unbeatable.

1 vote

Do or Die: Corporate Campaign Finance Reform

CTLarry

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 23, 2006 · 9:22 AM PST

2006/11/23 · 09:22

The system is broken, and merely electing Democrats will not and cannot, of itself, fix it. Electing Dems is the first step, but ending corporate political speech is the only real foundation for furthering an agenda that puts people first.

So long as corporations have the right to engage in political speech -- whether in the form of direct or indirect campaign contributions or independent expenditures on political ads, progressives are fighting a Sisyphusian battle. Absent reform, the fundamental conflict between the needs and desires of human beings -- food, shelter, medical care, a social safety net, on the one hand, and the corporation's overriding goal of profit maximization, on the other, means that the progressive movement will in perpetuity remain reduced to using all of its formidable efforts scrabbling for small Pyrrhic victories rather than achieving long-lasting policy reforms and true progress.

Poll

27 votes Show Results

Would you work to support a Constitutional amendment to strip corporations of their right to engage in political speech?

27 votes Vote Now!

Would you work to support a Constitutional amendment to strip corporations of their right to engage in political speech?

Yes

24 votes

3 votes

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