Politicians include SocSec figures in their budgets because the surpluses from the buildup of the Trust Fund (to handle baby boomer retirements) made their figures look better. The Trust Fund was not stolen. Those pesky paper IOUs are interest-bearing US Treasury Bonds. That's how the $20-plus trillion debt is financed. The US is not about to default on bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The Chinese bought US bonds. So did grandma. A default would send the cost of borrowing sky high.
Just because bonds are how the US finances the National Debt does not mean Congress "stole" from the Trust Fund. It's a lie designed to shake faith in the Social Security Retirement and Disability Insurance program. The radical conservatives want to privatize our retirements because they want to make a profit on it. That's their ideology.
SocSec surpluses and deficits are handled by adding to or withdrawing from the Trust Fund. Nothing goes into or comes out of general revenues. Social Security has its own revenue stream. Payroll taxes and interest on the Treasury Bonds. People claim that Social Security is government's biggest expense. It's not its biggest expense because it is not an expense of the federal budget at all. Do they also point out payroll tax revenues? No. Baby boomers are retiring, so the extra costs will come from the Trust Fund. That does not mean that SocSec is broke or will be in the red as so many claim. Would you be broke with $3 trillion in assets?
This reply is long-winded because I want to make it clear exactly how Social Security works. It is not a savings plan. It is insurance. Congress is supposed to tweak the payroll tax rates and adjust salary caps (above which income is not taxed) to keep the program fully funded for a projected 75 years. The GOP has been blocking those adjustments in order to convince people that the program needs saving, that it needs to be reformed. So now SocSec is only fully funded through 2034, after which it can only pay out 80% of benefits through the year 2095. 2034 is when the planned drawdown for the baby boomers will zero out the Trust Fund.
So what happens when benefits are cut and retirement ages are raised? The date that the Trust Fund zeros out changes slightly. That's it. It does not change the federal government's budget deficits or the National Debt by one red cent. Oh, sure, politician's budget figures change, but only because they loved including SocSec surpluses to make their figures look better. In reality, the surpluses went into the Trust Fund. But now they are stuck because they don't want those planned-for deficits making their budget figures look worse. OMG, we need to reform Social Security! Cut benefits! Raise retirement ages! Save Social Security!
The financial sector wants to privatize Social Security because they want to profit from it. They want their 20% cut, just like the returns they are getting with health care insurance. I don't want my retirement in the hands of cons who are notorious for making people's retirements disappear. Remember Bernie Madoff and his pretend brokerage transactions? Remember Trump's revocation of Obama's executive order that financial planners must have the interests of their clients take precedence? Brokers who buy and sell stocks in their client's portfolios to earn commissions (churning) until nothing is left? Business managers who run off to tropical paradises with their clients' savings? In contrast, Social Security will always be there. Unless politicians take it away from us. Don't believe the lies. Vote for people who have your interests at heart.
Link to YouTube video (shared as a post on Facebook):
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