Neolib, The fact that the current deficit numbers are reported lower than what they in fact are, i.e. the do not trumpet the SS portions is the scandal. But it is not a coverup as such. You can find the actual numbers. Any American can.
Ask the average (reasonably informed) American how much the debt increased last year, and most of them will tell you numbers on the order of $420B. The true number is $570B, but that truth is not being told by anyone. Not even the Democrats, who would love to pin bigger deficit figures on Bush but are more afraid of telling people the truth about the SS "trust fund."
I personally did not know until just a few weeks ago. Fool me one, shame on you, fool me twice ... no way.
What you did not address, and I went to some length to show, is that completely separating SS funds by investing them in CD's does not change the picture one bit. The governmental borrowing and future liabilities remain identical. The only difference is the accounting, and possibly peoples perception. What don't you understand about this?
I did address it. What you fail to grasp is that people's perceptions are everything. If more people understand that the SS "trust fund" is an illusion, they will start to tell members of Congress to clean up their fiscal act. Instead, they are lulled into a false sense of security. And the defenders of the SS "trust fund" myth continue to use circular logic to uphold that myth.
Anyway, the article that JF posted says it all. "It isn't that the trust fund is broken; it's that the existence of the fund is seducing the government to spend more than it otherwise would, thus brooking larger deficits in the future." I'll agree that SS isn't going to go "bankrupt," but I won't agree that the "trust fund" is really a trust fund.
Tenchusatsu |
