Jan 20, 2015

Less To The New House Rule Than Meets The Eye

     From Politico:
[A]n analysis by Social Security’s chief actuary, Stephen Goss, suggests there’s less to the new House rule [restricting the ability of the House to consider legislation to shift money from Social Security's Retirement Trust Fund to the Disability Trust Fund] than meets the eye. That’s because the point of order is triggered only if lawmakers exceed a “0.01 percent” threshold, which equates to a $38.6 billion cap on what any one Congress can move from the retirement fund, Goss told POLITICO.
That leaves too little room for some long-term, multiyear reallocation of payroll tax revenues but it is enough to get past 2016, by Goss’ calculations.
“We’re projecting [disability] trust funds will be depleted in December of 2016. … The shortfall for the ensuing 12 months would come to about $29 billion,” Goss said. “What that means is that we could have a tax rate reallocation that could apply in 2016 or 2016 and 2017 that would generate up to $30 billion or even $35 billion transferred to the [disability] trust fund, which would at least extend its reserve depletion date for one more year.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There appears to be quite a bit of wriggle room for Congress to get out of this self-created "crisis," especially if cuts to Social Security prove to be politically unpopular. Couldn't the allocation in the budget to increased CDRs, with a calculated $9 of savings to $1 spent, be enough savings alone to allow the reallocation between the trust funds?

Anonymous said...

No, because $9 in savings for every $1 spent is a bullshit number they pulled out of thin air.

Anonymous said...

The trust fund is bullshit numbers
What liquidity backs those numbers?

Anonymous said...

Simple solution. Pay back the 2.7 trillion that the Federal Government "borrowed" stole from the fund.
http://www.fedsmith.com/2013/05/23/government-owes-2-7-trillion-to-social-security/