Gee, who could have predicted this? President Obama decided to give the middle class a “tax break” by reducing payroll taxes. Payroll taxes fund Social Security. Most people didn’t even notice the tax holiday, but no matter, it was never about helping the middle class.
The Democrats constantly accuse Republicans of trying to kill Social Security, while it’s their cockamamie ideas that are defunding it. If only the Republicans had spines and stood up to them. Now the funding of Social Security is drying up faster than any of those high paid economists expected.
The outlook for Social Security’s trust fund has deteriorated to an astonishing degree over the past year, new Congressional Budget Office projections show.
The nonpartisan budget scorekeeper released the estimates Tuesday as part of broader economic and budget forecasts. CBO expects the trust fund to peak in 2018 and decline to $2.7 trillion in 2022 — a full $1 trillion less than Social Security’s own actuaries predicted last year.
The new trajectory suggests that the trust fund’s current depletion date of 2036 may jump ahead several years when Social Security’s trustees release their annual report this spring, making the retirement program more central to the 2012 election .
Read the whole thing, in the past year Social Security has taken a hit of $1 trillion in funding. There aren’t enough rich folks to pay for this. Is it too much to ask people to pay a portion of their own retirement?
Update: Linked by Lady Liberty – thanks!
Tags: depleted, obama, Social Security, Trust Fund
The president explained clearly that by extending the tax holiday, thousands, if not millions of new jobs would be created! Just hold on, the job market is poised to surge, then the social security funds will be rejuvenated by the Obama jobs creation plan!
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Joseph, we’ve been holding on for three years now waiting for things to get better. My fingers are getting tired and it’s a looooong drop to the bottom!
Why do I feel like I could really use a parachute right about now??
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So what’s the quickest way to government solvency under Obama? A tax on any variation of the word ‘Expected’?
Like ..say “Social Security Funds Drying Up Faster Than Expected”
Or “Unemployment Numbers for Last Month were Unexpectedly High”
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Even better, a tax on breathing…in and out. Oh, I know, a heartbeat tax. The amount you’d owe the govt would look like our natl dept ticker. That would raise some revenue.
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I’ve been pointing this out every time Obama opened his mouth on it and every time they passed extensions on it.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
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Obama just needed to manufacture the crisis faster. He needed to nudge removing the cap on the $108,600 earnings to capture that extra tax. But at the same he is destroying quality jobs and temporary, low-wage jobs are increasing. What trust fund? The money collected goes into the General Fund. He is destroying Social Security.
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[...] I told you so file: Social Security Funds Drying Up Faster Than Expected | The Lonely Conservative [...]
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Administration has found reasons for funds to be pulled away from Social Security toward other ends, but this may prove dangerous for a number of reasons. The borrowing that has taken place from Social Security has created a substantial government liability to the fund. Many point to the enormous general deficits and argue, justifiably, that the federal government may not be able to honor its commitment to Social Security.
Even if the government is able to repay what it has borrowed, however, this does not address the true danger. As the government continues to shift money between the two funds, the delineation between Social Security and other programs will become muddled and distort funding priorities. This was not the intention of the creators of Social Security when they made provision for a distinct trust fund and a separate revenue form in the payroll tax.
Should the government wish to continue to ignore the intended autonomy of the Social Security trust fund, it should take this policy stance to its natural end: Social Security revenues and liabilities should be pooled into the general budget (http://bit.ly/y5hMvv).
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