Dear Ms Weaver, I gave this "Nat'l Treasure" tiile to Andy based on my perception of his knowledge and ability, from his first 2 posts. He came on strong, He may or may not deliver. He only has a few more days. I'm anxious to study what he has to say.
I've studied almost all the other posts. You have delivered truth and honesty. We have determined in this forum that any person buying retirement insurance gets no return on $ paid in which go to SS Office Expense, to current retirees or to the general fund. The SS Trust Fund, (SSTF) has never had any $. Only bonds. The SSTF is a bookkeeping entry of the Treasury Dept. to show how much the taxpayers, workers, rich or poor, owe again for what they have alread paid, but is now gone. It is not, as many have said, a store of wealth for your retirement. It only shows how much the IRS must get from future workers.
SocSec figures and charts, in the World Almanac, Wall St. Jour. Almanac, the New York Times Web Page, etc, show official SS figures that the approx. $4 trillion debt in about 2020, will have to be collected from workers, between 2020 and about 2032., over and above current taxes. Impossible. $1 trillion is a stack of bundles of money, $1 million per bundle, each one inch thick, 15.78 miles high. $4 trillion is 4 times that.
And the unfunded debt, in SS only, will still be skyrocketing at a geometric rate, because of the basic nature of the "New Deal System."
Jerrold Nadler tells us that only a 2% change will keep SS solvent for 75 more years. Each person will have to either believe someone else OR do their own arithmetic.
Strange. A couple of years ago, when they began this new promotion, almost every presentation was both sides, simultaneously.
Almost always, even in Foreign Affairs mag. from the Council on Foreign Relations, Jul/Aug '97, side by side articles, one saying we need drastic changes, the other saying that only a small adjustment is necessary to save SS for many more years.
SS taxes/contributions have risen at ten time the rate of inflation. Baby boomers had nothing to do with it. Congress never invested anything for your benefit. They spent it and added it to your debt. The more you pay in, the more you owe.
Dan Casey told us that fifty years ago. But, the zietgeist of the New Deal has been much more persuasive to many of us.
They tell us today , we need to get more $ into the SSTF. By 65 year old law, each $ aimed there increases our debt. How can such a system be saved?
