This is why we need the government to take its task seriously, to provide a truly effective way of paying Social Security beneficiaries. Paying out of the trust fund is similar to paying for any other federal expenditure, such as battleships. As seriously as the people take their benefits, and as much as they need them to live lives of any material decency, changes must be made to the way the trust fund is handled. The trust fund must make it easier for the government to pay beneficiaries than it is to pay for any other federal expenditure, like battleships, rather than the same way. Don Levit
Anonymous: Yes, the idea of a lock box is very important. How that is to be done is the $64 million question? I like the idea of individual annuities, as proposed with the original Social Security Act. Insurance companies at the time, were, apparently, not set up to handle the volume of people, with such "small" contributions. Maybe we are better positioned today. Jim DeMint had some ideas is proposing legislation, S. 1302, in 2005. Some excerpts: "To amend the Social Security Act and the IRS Code of 1986 to stop the Congress from spending Social Security surpluses on other Government programs by dedicating those surpluses to personal accounts that can only be used to pay Social Security benefits." Sec.2 Findings. (1) "President Franklin Roosevelt's Jan. 17. 1935, message on Social Security declared that, "First, the system adopted, except for the money necessary to initiate it, should be self-sustaining in the sense that funds for the payment of insurance benefits should not come from the proceeds of general taxation." (4) "Comprehensive reforms should be enacted to--- (A) fix Social Security permanently; (B) ensure that any use of general revenues for the program is temporary; and (C) provide for the eventual repayment of any revenue transfers from the general fund to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund."
Go to: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s1302iS.txt.pdf. Don Levit
Sorry, I don't see anything of substance here. What do you do with the funds in these (or any) "dedicated" accounts? Just leave them there, earning no interest? Loan them to...the safest possible investor--Uncle Sam? But that's no different than what happens now.
5 comments:
This is why we need the government to take its task seriously, to provide a truly effective way of paying Social Security beneficiaries. Paying out of the trust fund is similar to paying for any other federal expenditure, such as battleships.
As seriously as the people take their benefits, and as much as they need them to live lives of any material decency, changes must be made to the way the trust fund is handled.
The trust fund must make it easier for the government to pay beneficiaries than it is to pay for any other federal expenditure, like battleships, rather than the same way.
Don Levit
Fine. How? Are we back to lock boxes?
Anonymous:
Yes, the idea of a lock box is very important.
How that is to be done is the $64 million question?
I like the idea of individual annuities, as proposed with the original Social Security Act.
Insurance companies at the time, were, apparently, not set up to handle the volume of people, with such "small" contributions.
Maybe we are better positioned today.
Jim DeMint had some ideas is proposing legislation, S. 1302, in 2005.
Some excerpts:
"To amend the Social Security Act and the IRS Code of 1986 to stop the Congress from spending Social Security surpluses on other Government programs by dedicating those surpluses to personal accounts that can only be used to pay Social Security benefits."
Sec.2 Findings.
(1) "President Franklin Roosevelt's Jan. 17. 1935, message on Social Security declared that, "First, the system adopted, except for the money necessary to initiate it, should be self-sustaining in the sense that funds for the payment of insurance benefits should not come from the proceeds of general taxation."
(4) "Comprehensive reforms should be enacted to---
(A) fix Social Security permanently;
(B) ensure that any use of general revenues for the program is temporary; and
(C) provide for the eventual repayment of any revenue transfers from the general fund to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund."
Go to:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s1302iS.txt.pdf.
Don Levit
Anonymous:
That link no longer works, but this one does:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-109s1302is/pdf/BILLS-109s1302is.pdf.
Don Levit
Sorry, I don't see anything of substance here. What do you do with the funds in these (or any) "dedicated" accounts? Just leave them there, earning no interest? Loan them to...the safest possible investor--Uncle Sam? But that's no different than what happens now.
Ya gotta do better than Jim DeMint rhetoric, Don.
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