Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Social Security a giant bundle of money the Republicans want to steal

As George W. Bush related, his greatest failure while in office was not stealing the Social Security Trust Fund for his Plutocratic Masters. If Bush had managed that Coup, Sean Hannity wouldn't have needed to get into a mulling, hissy fit of anger, on his radio show, at those "Lucky Duckies" proclaiming, 'Let Them Eat Rice and Beans!'

If Bush and the Republicans had managed to steal Social Security, the Poor people Sean Hannity so hates and despises would be dead and he could go back to claiming 9/11 happened while President Clinton was in office, TARP was signed by President Obama and Barack the Great didn't want to kill Osama Bin Laden.

The Republican Party has always hated SSI, because of what it represents; a chance for the oppressed to retire and live after they have finished decades of labor. Republicans would much rather you work yourself to death, thank you very much.

The release on April 23rd of the 2012 Annual Report by the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds (OASDI) made it clear Social Security isn't going to run out of money anytime soon. The assets in the Social Security Trust Fund total $2,700,000,000,000. ($2.7 Trillion dollars). In fact, Social Security is fully funded (i.e. 100% solvent) all the way through 2033.

And once we hit that year the Baby Boomer Bulge draining Social Security will have passed and the Nation will be dealing with the demographically much smaller Generation X.

But, damn Trillions of dollars just sitting there! That's a wet-dream for the thieving, perfidious and despicable Right-Wingers. The Rich! Want! That Fucking! Money! And Republicans would love to to swindle it from the Trust Fund and roll it into Wall Street from whence their Banking Buddies could apply some Synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations and Naked Credit Default Swap and...



But, never forget that no matter what the Republican liars, Faux Drones, or conservative sycophants proclaim Social Security has been funded overwhelmingly by the Working and Middle Class. The Rich are not paying vast sums into Social Security because the OASDI payroll tax collection has been capped for decades and collects Zero dollars over the current top amount of $110,000.

As Kevin Drum noted in 2010,
In 1983, when we last reformed Social Security, we made an implicit deal between two groups of American taxpayers. Call them Groups A and B. For about 30 years, Group A would pay higher taxes than necessary, thus allowing Group B to reduce their tax rates. Then, for about 30 years after that, Group A would pay lower taxes than necessary and Group B would make up for this with higher tax rates.

This might have been a squirrelly deal to make. But it doesn't matter. It's the deal we made. And it's obviously unfair to change it halfway through.

So who is Group A? It's people who pay Social Security payroll taxes, which mostly means working and middle class taxpayers. And who is Group B? It's people who pay federal income taxes, which mostly means the well-off and the rich. For nearly 30 years, Group A has been overpaying payroll taxes, and that's allowed the government to lower income tax rates. The implicit promise of the 1983 deal is that sometime in the next few years, this is going to flip. Group A will begin underpaying payroll taxes, and the rich, who have reaped the benefits of their overpayment for 30 years, will make good on their half of the deal by paying higher income tax rates to make up the difference.

The physical embodiment of this deal is the Social Security trust fund. Group A overpaid and built up a pile of bonds in the trust fund. Those bonds are a promise by Group B to repay the money. That promise is going to start coming due in a few years, and it's hardly surprising that Group B isn't as excited about the deal now as it was in 1983. It's never as much fun paying off a loan as it is to spend the money in the first place.

But pay it off they must.

10 comments:

Patricia said...

What's really surprising is that the greedy bastards haven't stolen it already. The other thing is that they'll just keep raising the retirement age so you can just work until you drop and never collect. Either way it's a win-win for group B

Sarge said...

Just think about all off the people who would have lost their
Social Security money if GW had
privatized it and tied what you got to the stock market - And, then had the market crash.

The Republicans represent the Greedy One Percent!


Now, get out and vote...


Sarge

Silverfiddle said...

What bundle? It's already gone, Gene...

Al Gore's lockbox is full of IOUs, and if you think it's only GOP signatures on those worthless pieces of paper, you're very naive.

Grung_e_Gene said...

@ Patricia,
In a sense they have stolen it because the Rich have been reaping windfall welfare from the Government while working day-in day-out, year-in year-out on a scheme to one day never let the 99% have what they've paid for Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment...

@ Sarge,
that was the plan all along when the Republicans completely controlled every branch of the US Government, to steal the money and shuffle it quietly away to their masters foreign bank accounts.

@ Silverfiddle,
"worthless pieces of paper"??? Do you advocate for the gold standard?

Do you think Mitt R-Money has actual physical monies in Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands or electronic "IOUs"?

Anonymous said...

No slave on any plantation has worked harder and/or longer than...40 years of defending and building America...$560 month...hahaha...

the yellow fringe said...

The GOP never let a good downturn go to waste to trout out their old song, of the evil of socialism, as if capitalism would have stepped in to support a bus drivers family, how many on bus drivers wages have saved the several hundred thousand it will take to live 87?

What they are really saying is let the old die through financial darwinism. In my experience, most the people ranting against social security, and the new health care plan, are people already on social security. It's like the fight at the loading of the lifeboats, don't let another one on board, they threaten us, they should have planned ahead.

Jerry Critter said...

SF,
I guess you don't believe in the "full faith and credit of the United States".

ran said...

"There are those who would question as to whether or not the social security bill was the most important bill that ever did pass the Congress of the United States. Others would say there were other acts. But I always believed the social security system was the greatest act that ever passed the Congress. It gave respect and it gave dignity to the golden-ager of America." - Ronald Reagan April 20, 1983

I'm trying to imagine one of today's Republicans publicly stating such leftist dogma.

toma said...

I can imagine it. In my mind's eye, I see an honest man getting tarred and feathered by his best friends.

SadOldVet said...

For SliverFinger and all others who question the worth of the bonds in the Social Security Trust Fund...

If you and other repuknicans call these bonds worthless (because the money has already been spent), tell me which bonds of the United States you consider worthy of honoring? Just the ones held by the 1%? Just the ones held by the Chinese? Shoud we also default on the bonds held by unions retirement funds? Should we also default on the bonds held by state retirement funds?