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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (357698)	11/9/2007 11:05:54 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573713

"When you want to get back to reality, let me know." Is it just me, or has this board gotten unusually surreal these past few days?

To: Road Walker who wrote (357698)	11/9/2007 11:52:46 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573713

Congress can pass a law having the SSA cancel the bonds. Congress can also pass a law to cancel all outstanding treasury bonds. The difference being that the normal treasury bonds are owed to other people, so canceling them would be a default. Canceling debt owed to yourself isn't a default. Your both the debtor and the creditor, and as the creditor you have a right to forgive any loan. And since congress controls the income stream for both accounts it doesn't even have to cancel this nominal debt, it can simply have the SSA tax revenue go to the treasury, then move it back to the SSA to "pay off the debt". Alternatively congress could dedicate part of the income tax to the SSA, and according to the official accounting for the Social Security, the program might be solvent for ever as the "trust fund" would never run out. But canceling or greatly increasing the "trust fund" this way is just shifting around balances. No money is gained or lost. The real problems of Social Security remain. The trust fund is basically an accounting fiction.