here is a $70 billion surplus because of one simple fact, it is coming from social security funds. Since 1968, President Johnson ordered that social security funds be placed in the general funds and no longer be kept separate.
dldewey.com
To analyse impacts on Social Security by a balanced budget, it is important to see how Social Security--as a federal fund--is linked to the overall federal budget.
Among the federal funds, the Social Security fund has a special status: it is „off-budget.“ This means, revenues from Social Security taxes are separated from other taxes arriving at the Treasury and transferred to the Social Security trust fund. However, if more Social Security taxes are received than spent to Social Security recipients, the federal government can spend the surplus--and the Treasury, then, is "in debt" at the fund.
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Over the next years, Social Security is expected to have a surplus. What does this mean for the overall federal budget? „Social Security’s benefits alone account for more than one-fifths of federal spending, and its payroll taxes account for about one-fourth of government revenues,“ (Congressional Budget Office, cited from GAO 32). This means for this year’s budget: if Social Security’s fund is excluded the budget is not black-inked anymore (Economist, May 30th, 1998:45; on the following chart, however, the black lines refers to federal deficit).
tiss.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
(Lizzie, where are you? You're the one who loves to brag about Clinton's balanced budgets. They've ALL been balanced using this trick!)
I have no doubt what you say about our first black President is true. Slick HATED the military- -unless he needed them to provide a distraction. |
