I submitted the following commentMore lies about Social Security to Bill Maher's facebook page and has been published on my Newsvine line account.
Gene DeVaux One of my old bosses had a saying that would apply to Steve Moore, "Loud and wrong." Mr. Moore, an author, appeared on the Bill Maher show recently. He claimed that Social security is bankrupt and adds $500 billion a year to the national debt. When Senator Bernie Sanders challenged his assertion, Moore, literally screamed out that “Social Security is bankrupt. He very obviously does not understand what bankruptcy is, neither does he understand federal budgeting nor how the Social Security system works.
Social Security cannot be "bankrupt." The program has
borrowed no money. It has no debt that it cannot repay because it has borrowed
not a single dime. Bernie Sanders was the only one on your panel who
understands how the system works.
Since 1984, after the Social Security law was revised during the
Reagan administration, it has racked up $2.7 trillion in surplus revenues from
the FICA payroll tax. The surpluses of the Clinton era came about because of
the huge Social Security surpluses. The so-called "Lock box" concept
was foolish. Money borrowed from Social Security was used to pay for federal
deficits but just like any Treasury bond debt, the government owes that money
to the Social Security trust fund. You could say that the trust fund is a
lockbox because the Social Security law clearly states that no assets can be
used for anything but benefits and the small expense of running the system.
There are 150 federal trust funds, but the Con men always only claim
that Social Security is bankrupt. Federal debt owed to the SS trust fund and
all of the other trust funds has been borrowed and is owed to each and every
one of them. Most people in the news
media, especially those at my home town news paper, the Kansas City Star do not
understand how the federal budget works. First of all, Social Security is an
"off budget" program; it is not part of the general budget but is
often “reported” as part of the “consolidated” budget. That only helps to
disguise the true size of federal deficits. “Reported” does not mean it is part of the
general budget. The general budget consistently
runs deficits because of insufficient revenues. Social Security has run no deficits
for many decades. Steve Moore, "loud and wrong" is just like any
other Republi-CON man. Cutting Social Security benefits will only allow the
federal budget to continue using Social Security funds for a longer period of
time for general budget outlays.
