Posts Tagged ‘trust fund’
Truth Squad — How healthy is the Social Security trust fund?
Just leave your check in the plate by the door!
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
The statement: The Social Security payroll tax cut that President Barack Obama is seeking to extend “will cost the Social Security trust fund another $112 billion, and we don’t have enough money this year in the Social Security trust fund to put out those checks — which means we have to go to the general Treasury to get the money.” — Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, at Saturday night’s ABC News debate in Iowa. She added that the tax cut “blew a hole” in the trust fund.
The facts: The Obama administration says the Social Security payroll tax cut is projected to cost about $112 billion in the coming year. The administration says the money that would have gone to the trust fund would be made up from general revenues, with “no effect on individuals’ current or future Social Security benefits.”
Social Security paid out $712 billion in benefits and took in $663 billion in taxes in 2010, leaving it with a revenue shortfall of $49 billion. That’s according to figures released in August by the system’s trustees. But interest on its trust fund added another $117 billion, bringing the trust fund’s total balance to $2.6 trillion.
Under current projections, the trust fund — created in the 1980s to prepare for the retirement of the Baby Boom generation — will run out in 2036, the trustees reported in May. At that point, the remaining income will pay about 77% of scheduled benefits.
The verdict: Misleading. Bachmann is correct in saying the payroll tax cut will require a transfer from the Treasury to replace the money that would have otherwise gone to the Social Security trust fund. But she’s mistaken when she says there’s not enough money in the trust fund to cover current benefits.
This is the kind of crap repeated time and again by the same creeps who would privatize social security and turn it over to the benevolent hands of investment bankers and insurance companies who all perform such a lovely job of taking care of ordinary Americans. They have a popularity rating almost as dismal as lawyers, politicians in general and, of course, Congress.
Which is where Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul are currently employed – and Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum used to be employed until they were removed.
Not too long ago, the New York TIMES surveyed their readership about solutions to questions about social security funding. The simplest answer received a 76% endorsement. Remove the cap from the payroll tax which funds SSA. No doubt that readership has more folks with earnings at 6-figures and up than many other newspapers – which is where the cap fits in – but they still had no problem supporting an equitable and non-regressive solution.
As usual, it’s just the pimps for a percentage of the wealthiest campaign contributors who oppose a measure which would carry the SSA fund into the 22nd Century. By which time, we might even have a sufficient number of bright people in government to come up further solutions. At the moment, the crowd we have is sufficient – if they behave with a modicum of ethics and intelligence.
$9 billion succession war clouds over funeral of Sai Baba
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Politicians, Bollywood figures and other mourners paid homage to Indian holy man Sathya Sai Baba Monday amid fears of a fight over his $9 billion trust legacy.
The spiritual leader’s body lay in an air-conditioned glass casket with gold plating in the main meditation hall of his Prasanthi Nilayam ashram to let the expected hundreds of thousands of followers pay their last respects, officials said.
Sai Baba, 84, died Sunday of multiple organ failure in a hospital near the south Indian ashram…
Giant screens placed near the ashram gates projected images of his body, evoking cheers and tears among the people waiting to get inside, The Indian Express reported.
Sai Baba was known for conjuring jewelry, food and vibhuti, or sacred ash, out of the air, which devotees saw as proof of his powers and skeptics called sleight of hand.
His gentle demeanor, Afro-style hair and embrace of many belief systems beyond his eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs attracted an estimated 6 million active and 33 million passive followers, including former presidents, generals, film-industry luminaries and sports stars. His Sathya Sai Organization, which seeks to help people recognize the divinity within them, maintains more than 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 130 countries worldwide…
Sai Baba left no trust heir, raising fears of a custodial “succession war” over who would now manage the $9 billion.
He left enough money behind to fund a small country. Who knows where it will go, now?
