Rob Port at Say Anything Blog makes a great point…
Today, the President told CBS he couldn’t guarantee Social Security checks would go out if an agreement wasn’t reached on the debt ceiling:
Granted, some of this is just fear mongering by the President. Scaring old people is a Democratic classic right up there with playing the race card.
But it does make an interesting point about the real nature of the Social Security Trust Fund. According to the actuaries, the Social Security Trust Fund has a $2. 6 trillion surplus. Here’s the official government issued graph showing the money is there.
Only as the President just admitted today, it doesn’t really exist. We either have the money (by borrowing) to pay recipients or we don’t. There’s no Social Security savings account we can draw from. The trust fund is such a silly myth that even NPR called it a lie:
That $2.5 trillion dollars in that Social Security Trust Fund report that you read at the top of the program, that is $2.5 trillion dollars that the federal government owes. So calling a $2.5 trillion debt a $2.5 trillion trust fund…It seems like a lie. I mean, a fund is money you save. Debt is money you owe. It seems like they’re as opposite as you can get.
The reality, which the President tacitly acknowledged today, is that if we can’t borrow we might not be able to pay current recipients. He didn’t say “Well, don’t worry because the trust fund will keep us going.” That should tell you something.
The Trust Fund is a hoax. It’s past time for Democrats to stop pretending otherwise.
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