The sky is falling. The sky is falling.
The new CBO report shows how the General Fund has to actually pay-back the interest it owes the Social Security Trust Fund ... Oh me! ... Oh My! ... and
The sky is falling! Run for the hills!
Social Security will HAVE TO Change – CBO
Bruce Krasting, Author's Website: wallstreetpit - Jan 28, 2011
The CBO’s definition of "surplus" includes script interest from Treasury. This script is not a cash item. All other flows into and out of SS are actual cash receipts and disbursements. Therefore the CBO surplus minus non-cash interest is equal to net cash flow.
[...]
That’s right. SS will run a cash deficit forever. They will run up a trillion dollar (+) cash deficit over the next decade. All of it must be borrowed in the public market.
So the U.S. Government is NOT suppose to make good on its Debts, to pay back the interest to American Workers on the FICA Taxes that it has borrowed?
Apparently not.
WHY is it, that it's always the Chicken Littles, that get all the press?
Must be because they are so cute and fuzzy ...
"Fuzzy" like G.W.'s Math, I guess ...
First the Report generating the current wave of Social Security hysteria:
CBO: The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021 (pdf)
Congressional Budget Office
Now for a few more Social Security facts, buried on page 2 of ABC News "report" on that new CBO Report:
Social Security Posting $600B Deficit Over 10 years
Waning economic recovery, surge in boomer retirements sink Social Security fund into deficit
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press, ABCnews --Jan 27, 2011
[pg 2]
"In the last 75 years, in good times and in bad times, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible beneficiary at a relatively modest administrative cost," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, who organized the first meeting of the Senate Social Security caucus Thursday.
"We are getting very tired about hearing our Republican and right wing friends telling us about how Social Security is collapsing when the reality is, Social Security today has a surplus of $2.6 trillion," Sanders said. "Social Security can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American, for the next 27 years."
[... then the ABC writer continues with their "analysis"]
The $2.5 trillion surplus, however, has been borrowed over the years by the federal government and spent on other programs. In return, the Treasury Department has issued bonds to Social Security, guaranteeing repayment with interest.
It's a bad time for the nation to be hit with more financial obligations. The federal budget deficit will surge to a record $1.5 trillion flood of red ink this year, congressional budget experts estimated Wednesday, blaming the slow economic recovery and a tax cut law enacted in December.
Lawmakers from both parties have vowed to address the nation's financial problems, including such contentious issues as Social Security and Medicare. The political climate, however, has made it difficult. Some Democrats have criticized plans to cut Social Security benefits as secret plots to destroy the program. Many Republicans have refused to consider tax increases.
Funny how that report concedes the Fact that:
"the Treasury Department has issued bonds to Social Security, guaranteeing repayment with interest"
and then immediately conflates that obligation with the larger "federal budget deficit" and "a record $1.5 trillion flood of red ink this year"
Funny how that happens. That is what passes for Journalism these days, how one Debt is as good as another -- it's all fungible right? And Somebody HAS to pay.
Of course, if you are the average reader you may have not gotten to those important Social Security facts, you made not have read beyond that scary warnings on page 1 of that ABC News Report, nor past their video Blaming the "True Culprits" (psst ... it's those damn Boomers' fault, doncha know!)
Social Security Posting $600B Deficit Over 10 years
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press, ABCnews --Jan 27, 2011
[pg 1]
Social Security will post nearly $600 billion in deficits over the next decade [...]
Last year, Social Security posted its first deficit since the program was last overhauled in the 1980s. The CBO said at the time that Social Security would post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into deficits in 2016.
But the new projections show nothing but red ink until the Social Security trust funds are exhausted in 2037.
[...]
The deficits add a sense of urgency to efforts to improve Social Security's finances. For much of the past 30 years, Social Security has run big surpluses, which the government has borrowed to spend on other programs. Now that the program is running deficits, the federal government will have to find money elsewhere to pay back Social Security, so it continue to issue benefits.
"Curse you Boomers!" -- your "Generational Theft" is about to make Social Security "Go Broke" -- right before our very eyes:
The Sky must really be falling! It was on ABC News!
Who will save Social Security -- from all those Greedy Retirees ???
link to video
Beware of the dire warnings ... a Debt is a Debt is a Debt is a Debt!
Beware when they say that we all know Debts are BAD! they are very, very bad -- especially when a Debt is related to the U.S. Govt paying back the interest IT OWES the American People:
CBO: Social Security Now Officially Broke
By Kevin D. Williamson, nationalreview.com -- Jan 26, 2011
The new CBO estimates put Social Security in the red for as far as the eye can see.
But there’s a bit of camouflage attached: If you include the "interest" that the federal government "owes" the fictitious Social Security "trust fund," then the program is in the black. Which is to say, if you think that borrowing another $1 trillion from the bond market to shift money from one government account to another government account makes the nation $1 trillion richer, then everything’s hunky-dory.
That is a rather cynical view of Government Accounting, I'd say. Thanks NationalReview, well done -- NOT!
Well, thankfully some American Senators are not falling for this latest incarnation of Austerity Hysteria -- (which is code for "blame the victims")
Bernie Sanders on Social Security Facts -- The Ed Show 01/27/2011
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Despite the Dire warnings...
Social Security is NOT in Crisis!
Thankfully Senator Sanders and his new caucus co-members will be standing up against the False Message campaign that is just beginning -- 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 very safely invested, with nearly a 3 Trillion Dollar Surplus ... And will continue to be, for a very long time.
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.
Senator Sanders just explained in plain English to callers of the Thom Hartmann show. Bernie's explanation went like this (very rough paraphrase):
Social Security has a $2.6 Trillion Surplus. What would you do with that kind of money, let it sit around? Put it under your mattress? No, you would put it somewhere safe, where it could earn a base level of interest. That's what happens. The Social Security Surplus has been put into the safest investments possible -- U.S. Treasury Bills. It is as safe as any other U.S. Obligation to pay back its debts.
The 1980 fix that Congress made to Social Security, was intended just for the situation we are starting to see today -- when the Social Security payments start to exceed the current Social Security revenues. They designed it so that the Surpluses from the good years, would be available when they were needed. Social Security is not going broke. It is doing what it was designed to do.
Perhaps another caller to the show, put it best:
As I understand it, Social Security has a huge Surplus. That money was put into the Social Security Trust Fund as T-Bills. And the rich bought those Trust Fund T-Bills, using the Bush Tax Cuts. Bush borrowed from that Trust Fund, to pay for things like war. And now those that benefited most from those Bush Tax Cuts -- DON'T want to pay back what they owe the country.
So the next time you hear the dire warning that the
"The sky is falling. The sky is falling!"
Just ask yourself, how much "paranoia and mass hysteria" is should be generated, just because some Austerity-draped Politician,
"believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on its head"
???
Sometimes acorns, are really good things. Not "a sign from above" of impending Doom and Despair.
... sometimes those T-Bill "interest acorns" are simply "an investment", stored away, to insure our future well-being. They are seeds, afterall.