An excerpt…
(*SHRUG*)
…from an excerpt...
Seriously… from one of yesterday’s newsbites:
“Social Security is insolvent,” Boston University
economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff told the House Subcommittee on Social
Security at a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “And it’s not bankrupt in 30
years, or 20 years, or 10 years. It’s bankrupt today.”
“This is not my opinion. This is the only conclusion one
can draw from Table IVB6 of the 2013 Social Security Trustee’s Report."
Kotlikoff also told House members that Social Security is
now in “worse financial shape today than when the Greenspan Commission ‘fixed’
it” 31 years ago.
“Today, we are looking, in the current 75-year projection
widow, at 31 years of negative cash flows, which the Greenspan Commission knew
were coming and willfully ignored,” he said.
The economist also accused the system’s trustees of a
“disinformation” campaign to keep Americans from finding out that “Social
Security is in dire financial shape.”
* NOTE: The Board of Trustees currently consists of six
members, four of whom automatically serve by virtue of their positions in the
Federal Government. These four are the Secretary of the Treasury (the Managing
Trustee), Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Commissioner
of Social Security. The other two members are appointed by the President and
confirmed by the Senate. These two members serve four-year terms.
* ON THE OTHER HAND...
“To their great credit, Social Security’s actuaries have
been reporting the system’s infinite horizon fiscal gap every year since 2002.
And to their great shame, Social Security’s Trustees have been ignoring this
comprehensive measure of the system’s insolvency every year since 2002.”
* AND NO ONE GOES TO JAIL...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* FOLKS... CONSIDER THIS: IT'S 2014. THIS ENTIRE
GENERATION OF K-12 STUDENTS COULD HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THE TRUTH... YET WEREN'T.
THINK ABOUT THAT. THE CALENDAR MAY READ 2014... BUT I FEAR "1984" IS
CLOSER TO THE TRUTH.
Kotlikoff testified that “nothing short of a fundamental
reform of the system” will save it. “To pay its scheduled benefits in full
through time, the Social Security system needs a 32% immediate and permanent
increase in the future path of payroll tax revenues,” Kotlikoff noted. “Alternately,
to prevent having to raise its FICA payroll tax rate, the system needs to
immediately and permanently cut all benefits payments by 22%.”
Kotlikoff also pointed out that Social Security, which is
32% underfinanced compared to its obligations, “cannot be bailed out by the
rest of our fiscal system,” which is 58% underfinanced.
(*GUFFAW*)
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