Recent figures from the CBO suggest that Social Security contributed $877 billion to total revenue, but the author says that the CBO’s budget projections are misleading, especially as they relate to Social Security.
The author says that the most basic problem in Social Security over the last 80 years is the way that Congress can use the system to buy votes today at the expense of workers in the future.
The author says that Social Security is a financial system which basically takes a dollar in and ships a dollar out, and somebody has to make money if somebody else is losing money. He elaborates on this concept by way of a personal example.
The author says that new rules adopted by the House do not change the math of Social Security. The rules are a resolution in which the GOP tells voters that it will have the courage in the future to prevent the can to be kicked again. Whether the GOP does or not will be tested in the year ahead.
The author says that use of the penny and the nickel are rapidly losing ground to electronic currency, so much so that he says it no longer makes sense to keep them in circulation.
The author writes about a prediction made by one person in the 1940s about the future of Social Security that, in hindsight, has turned out to be remarkably accurate. He explains why Americans should pay attention to the warnings that were issued so many years ago.
Very little in the U.S. tax code draws the ire of taxpayers and creates the confusion of the taxation of Social Security benefits. The author provides details about the taxes surrounding Social Security in an attempt to clear up some of the confusion.
The author says that as election season gears up, politicians are ignoring the real problems with Social Security and instead making empty promises that cannot be kept in order to get elected.
Over the past two weeks, the discussion about Social Security and its impact (or lack thereof) on the federal deficit degenerated into a full blown ‘does so’ – ‘does not’ school yard shouting match. The author analyzes the validity of the claims each side is making.
The author says that while the idea of exposing all wages to payroll taxes is one of the more popular policy options in the Social Security debate, it is bad policy that will only serve to further destabilize the system over time.
