It's astonishing to me that there's actually a growing number of Republicans pushing to make major cuts to Social Security as part of the bum's rush push for spending cuts this summer and fall. The idea has zero public support. And it doesn't make much sense from a policy standpoint since Social Security isn't what's driving the country's structural deficits. What's most surprising though is that many Democrats are along for the ride.
Jun 22, 2011
Playing Rope-A-Dope?
From Josh Marshall at TPM:
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"Social Security is implicated in the debt limit fight because the so-called Social Security “trust funds” are rightly counted as part of the national debt subject to the debt limit. All the government bonds in those trust funds are just a statement of the legal authority that Social Security has to draw from general revenues, in addition payroll tax revenues, to pay Social Security benefits."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/06/22/obamas-debt-limit-scare-tactics/#ixzz1Q1kyohhD
Anonymous:
Excellent point.
The trust fund merely indicates the amount of draw Social Security can make from the Treasury without an appropriation.
It in no way provides the funds for the approipriation. The funding comes from new (general) revenues, or in the case of a deficit, from increasing debt held by the public.
Don Levit
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