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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (103762)	11/2/2011 10:07:39 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

The CBO talks about using up the Social Security Trust Fund, as if there is some lockbox full of money they can dip into. But as we all know, the Trust Fund is empty. It holds IOUs, which are not the same as cold hard cash or investments. When the IOUs are redeemed to pay out money to retirees, the Treasury has to come up with the cash. If they can't do it through general revenue funds, then they have to borrow the money or print it. That is what is happening now. The bottom line is that the solvency of the Social Security and Health programs are a mirage. There's no money there. Any money from past payroll taxes has already been used up. The only so-called assets those Trust Funds hold are IOUs. It's fake. It's air. It's fantasy. It's monopoly money. The only real money they can use is from current payroll taxes. Look at the pie chart below: usgovernmentspending.com Already Social Security (Pensions) and Health account for $1.7 trillion, or 47% of our budget spend of $3.7 trillion. We have Federal Tax Revenues of $2.2 trillion. Ergo, SS and Health spending as a percentage of tax revenues = 77%. Exactly why do you think this is sustainable? There is nothing sustainable about this.