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Overview. The Trust Fund represents a legal obligation of the federal government to program beneficiaries. The government has borrowed nearly $2.8 trillion as of 2014 from the Trust Fund and used the money for other purposes.
Q1. Which political party took Social Security from the independent trust fund and put it into the general fund so that Congress could spend it?
A1: There has never been any change in the way the Social Security program is financed or the way that Social Security payroll taxes are used by the federal government. The Social Security Trust Fund was created in 1939 as part of the Amendments enacted in that year. From its inception, the Trust Fund has always worked the same way. The Social Security Trust Fund has never been "put into the general fund of the government."
Most likely this question comes from a confusion between the financing of the Social Security program and the way the Social Security Trust Fund is treated in federal budget accounting. Starting in 1969 (due to action by the Johnson Administration in 1968) the transactions to the Trust Fund were included in what is known as the "unified budget." This means that every function of the federal government is included in a single budget. This is sometimes described by saying that the Social Security Trust Funds are "on-budget." This budget treatment of the Social Security Trust Fund continued until 1990 when the Trust Funds were again taken "off-budget." This means only that they are shown as a separate account in the federal budget. But whether the Trust Funds are "on-budget" or "off-budget" is primarily a question of accounting practices--it has no effect on the actual operations of the Trust Fund itself.
Originally SS was a pool that got invested for you by the government.
No, it was not, and you can't provide a single shred of evidence to support such an erroneous claim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bo_Lorem
"The Social Security Act was passed in 1935 guaranteeing retirement pensions to all Americans over the age of 65. Sounds like a good deal — except for the fact that the average American life expectancy back in '35 was 61.7 years."
Life Expectancy was addressed by Congress in 1983.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobNJ1960
Unemployment should not be a consideration.
SS is not meant to accommodate extending retirement years, nor should it be.
Unemployment is a consideration, since you would have to create 30 Million jobs for the unemployed in order to maintain a UE Rate of 4.5%.
If you don't create 30 Million jobs, then your UE Rate will be a constant 19.5% and cause severe damage to your economy.
And how long has the government been stealing from everyone of us?? I was young and naïve at the time the night clubs I worked at paid partly in cash and then in the form of a check I had MANY odd jobs traveling around the country $200-300 here and there kept from off the streets and a roof over my head
I didn't beg nor did I sponge off anyone I worked for what I got.
That's not the issue. The issue is that you didn't save/invest any of it.
I retired under the old government system Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) at age 55. That was in 2007. I had 33 years in time. The pension formula for me amounted to 80% of the average of my three highest pay years which amounts to $9000 a month or the equivalent of having a full time job making $50+ an hour for the rest of my life. I've already collected more than a million dollars in the ten years I've been retired from my government pension. Plus I get COLA's. Plus my wife has a state pension and also collects SS. So that's why the government switched over to a less lucrative pension (FERS) for today's federal retirees. It wasn't sustainable and times have changed.
I retired under the old government system Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) at age 55. That was in 2007. I had 33 years in time. The pension formula for me amounted to 80% of the average of my three highest pay years which amounts to $9000 a month or the equivalent of having a full time job making $50+ an hour for the rest of my life. I've already collected more than a million dollars in the ten years I've been retired from my government pension. Plus I get COLA's. Plus my wife has a state pension and also collects SS. So that's why the government switched over to a less lucrative pension (FERS) for today's federal retirees. It wasn't sustainable and times have changed.
I wonder how many federal and state private industry taxpayers are needed to support you and your wife for possibly 30 years by providing you both a large retirement income and free health care premiums instead of using their income to support their own families, save for retirement, and pay for their health care premiums and deductibles? dozens and dozens.
government doesn't make money. the government's obligations are paid from tax revenue received from taxpayers or money borrowed from lenders.
Last edited by texan2yankee; 02-11-2018 at 04:48 PM..
getting rid of the cap(contribution cap) also negates the payout cap(by law all the way from FDR)...will cause SS to go under even faster
they don't realize they CAN'T, the system was set up that the cap is for both ends
they don't realize that currently the guy who makes exactly 127k pays 6+% (plus the employers 6+%) into SS, and the guy who makes 1 million pays exactly the same 6+% of 127K....and at retirement the millionaire AND the 127k guy will get exactly the same (the max payout)
No. Your math doesn't check out.
To get the maximum payout of $31k, you have to earn $127k for 35 years. That represents a pay in of $578k. Assuming a normal life span -- from 67 to 85 -- the total payout is $588k. So the system is more or less balanced for the high earners. Therefore raising both caps won't hurt the system and won't make it go under faster.
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