OH NOES!
Stop the Presses! Social Security is In Crisis!
Who will save Social Security -- from all those Greedy Retirees ???
Social Security gone by 2037
By Cassandra Duvall, mynews4.com -- Jan 27, 2011
A new Congressional projection shows Social Security will begin losing money this year, and if the current trend keeps, it will be gone by the year 2037.
It will BE GONE -- I tell you !
Unnamed sources are telling us So ...
If they repeat it enough times -- that must make it true, right?
Not only will Social Security 'BE Gone' -- It's tank will be 'On Empty' too !
Uh oh. Quick someone call a Wall Street Banker, for some advice ...
Report: Social Security Fund Empty by 2037
FrumForum News -- Jan 27, 2011
Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in bleaker-than-previous estimates.
Not only will Social Security 'BE Gone' -- It will also 'be DRAINED' !
Uh oh. Quick someone call an Austerity Plumber ... and hurry up it's almost 2037, already!
Social Security fund will be drained by 2037
AP – Jan 27, 2011
New congressional projections show Social Security running deficits every year until its trust funds are eventually drained in about 2037.
[...]
Social Security has built up a $2.5 trillion surplus since the retirement program was last overhauled in the 1980s. Benefits will be safe until that money runs out. That is projected to happen in 2037 — unless Congress acts in the meantime. At that point, Social Security would collect enough in payroll taxes to pay out about 78 percent of benefits, according to the Social Security Administration.
What's that? Social Security's Tank will really still be 78% FILLED starting in 2037 ...
That's a Loooong ways from GONE, EMPTY, DRAINED.
Hmmmm? Who will stand up against this coordinated Hysteria Campaign?
Who will explain, that a simple pit-stop at the "FICA Cap" Filling Station, will get that SS Tank topped back up to 100% levels -- post haste ?
One man will ... or should I say One Democratic Caucus will, stand up and state the Social Security Facts:
Sanders starts Social Security caucus in U.S. Senate
By Nicole Gaudiano, Burlington Free Press Washington Writer -- Jan 27, 2011
The Vermont independent [Bernie Sanders] has launched the Defending Social Security Caucus to protect the 75-year-old program, which he said is threatened by Republicans who support benefit cuts, raising the retirement age or privatizing the program.
"We want to make it very clear that the program has worked, it has a surplus, and it should not be cut," he said Wednesday.
[...]
Sanders said he hopes to clear up misinformation that the program is going bankrupt and is tied to the deficit. He said Social Security has a $2.6 trillion surplus that will pay 100 percent benefits for 27 years and is funded by payroll taxes, not the U.S. Treasury.
"The suggestion that we should cut Social Security because we have a large deficit, when Social Security has not contributed one nickel to the deficit, seems to me to be absolutely wrong," he said.
Social Security has a Surplus.
Social Security has always paid its obligations.
Social Security even lends its Surplus, to fund other Govt Operations.
News Flash: That is NOT a Crisis, NOT for Social Security anyways ...
That is as long as the U.S. Govt can figure out a way to raise some Revenue, to honor its Debts, that the U.S. Govt OWES to Social Security retirees, hard working people who were simply kind enough to float them the Loan. Time to Pay up U.S. ... by 2037 that is.
Social Security is NOT in Crisis!
Thankfully Senator Sanders and his caucus members will be standing up against the GOP False Messages -- that would have us believe that Social Security is running on fumes, that it is almost GONE.
Nothing could be further from the truth ... Since Social Security funds are actually overflowing. And will continue to be, for a very long time.
----------------------
and thankfully Senator Sanders will have some help:
Defending Social Security Caucus:
Members of the new caucus include Democratic Sens. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii; Barbara Boxer of California; Sherrod Brown of Ohio; Charles Schumer of New York; Debbie Stabenow of Michigan; and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. They will meet with senior citizens organizations, experts on Social Security, and leaders of groups representing millions of workers and persons with disabilities.
========= Update =======
I suspect this New CBO Report (Jan 2011) is the source of the Sky-is-Falling reports:
http://www.cbo.gov/...
as was cited in the msnbc story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
I've been scouring the CBO report for the "dire predictions" of SS shortfalls being reported --
So far this is all I've found on point:
pg 111
Social Security. As a result of changes in its economic forecast, CBO’s projections of spending for Social Security over the 2011–2020 period have declined by $27 billion. Lower expected growth in wages and salaries and slightly lower projected cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) from 2013 through 2017 have led CBO to reduce projected Social Security outlays; those reductions are partially offset by the impact of an increase in the expected COLA in January 2012 (to 1.1 percent versus the 0.7 percent incorporated in the August baseline).
pg 98
CBO’s Projections of Social Insurance Tax Receipts
2012 - 2021
Social Security $8,745 Billion
Kind of sounds like that "new" $27 Billion shortfall, are covered quite well,
by the projected $8,745 Billion income side of the SS ledger, for roughly the same periods.