Friday, August 27, 2010

Who would you believe about the Social Security trust fund?

Your Congressman or the Congressional Budget Office? I know who I'd believe. Over at AEI's Enterprise blog.

1 comment:

WilliamLarsen said...

I seriously doubt any Elected Representative or Senator knows how Social Security works, much less about the balance of US Debt held by the Social Security Administration in the form of payable on demand notes. As for the CBO, I do not trust them at all. Every year they can’t even subtract the national debt as of 9-30-2008 from the national debt as of 9-30-2009 and get the right answer. My 13 year was able to do this simple math exercise when he was 8.

Prefunding is impossible for social security. Prefunding implies that funds are set aside at the rate they will be needed in the future. The initial payroll tax in 1937 was 2% when in fact A J Altmeyer testified that it probably needed to be 8%. It did not reach 8% until 1968, more than 31 years later and after 37 cohorts had begun to receive benefits far in excess of what their payroll taxes could have paid. This deficit, gift, fraud, con, extortion is now given the term “Legacy Debt.” It is so nice to put political spin on fraud. It makes the swallowing of the fraud so much easier.