RE: Is FICA Tax too low? or too high?

[Michael Jones <powderfinger99@yahoo.com>]

<<<<
If the general fund had spent $800 billion less, it would still
owe the SS trust fund $800 billion. Why? Because $800 billion is
what the SS excess was, and the general fund borrowed more than
that to fund its spending. It would have still had to borrow from
the SS trust fund first. The law requires that. We would just have
less public debt. And as a point of fact, the total debt is about
$5.6 Trillion (there are other trust funds besides SS).
>>>>

We are getting close to agreement here. The key here is the statement
"We would just have less public debt". This is really my 
whole point.

The government owes that money to SSA whether it spends it
or pays down debt. The government's interest payments go down
when it pays down debt. Less interest payments means more money
available to pay back the SSA notes. 

Simply spending the excess money only increases the debt and
makes the federal budget in an even worse state to pay future
SSA obligations.

Don't let some actuary fool you. It doesn't matter how the
"expert" actuaries divide up the pie. The only important
financial issues of concern are:

* Is the public debt going down.
* Are interest payments on the debt going down.

If these two things are not happening under the current
FICA tax surplus, then the extra taxes are not really helping
the system. You can talk all day about how all the money goes
into the SSA bucket. That money is simply a note for future
payment by the operating budget.

If the debt increases and interest payments increase, how can
the government ever hope to repay these loans? Isn't this
just common sense?

Michael