Attention sheep: This Social Security article really angers me. You should feel angry, too.

What would you think if you received the following urgent notice?

In other words, Social Security, which is 100% funded and controlled by the Federal Government, will run out of funds unless the Government adds dollars to the program, which it easily could do at the touch of a computer key. Crazy.

Returning to the CRFB article:

Social Security is approaching insolvency. Under current law, Social Security cannot guarantee full benefits to current retirees.

Note the words “current law.”

Nothing prevents the federal government from changing any law, which it does thousands of times each year.

Essentially, the CRFB says, “Your car will crash into your garage door unless you put on the brakes and/or open the door, which you do every evening when you come home.”

The Trustees project the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will deplete its reserves by 2033, when today’s 58-year-olds reach the full retirement age and today’s youngest retirees turn 71.

First, the so-called “Trust Fund” isn’t a trust fund.  It’s just a bookkeeping line item:

A “trust fund” implies a secure source of funding. However, a federal trust fund is simply a bookkeeping mechanism used to track inflows and outflows for specific programs.

In private-sectortrust funds, receipts are deposited and assets are held and invested by trustees on behalf of the stated beneficiaries.

In federal trust funds, the federal government does not set aside the receipts or invest them in private assets.

Rather, the receipts are recorded as accounting credits in the trust funds and then combined with other receipts that the Treasury collects and spends.

Second, the federal government owns the accounts and can unilaterally alter their purposes and raise or lower collections and expenditures by changing the law.

Thus, Congress could solve the insolvency “problem” simply by passing a rule and clicking a computer key. The government does not need to collect a single tax penny or cut benefits.

It’s a fake problem.

Returning to the misleading CRFB scare article:

Upon insolvency, all beneficiaries will face a 21 percent across-the-board benefit cut. Including the Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund, the theoretically combined trust funds will be insolvent by 2035 and beneficiaries would face a 17 percent cut.

Right, and tonight, when you return home, you will crash into your garage door, unless you park in the street — or, you simply could touch the brakes and open the door.

Social Security faces large and rising imbalances. According to the Trustees, Social Security will run cash deficits of $3 trillion over the next decade, the equivalent of 2.3 percent of taxable payroll or 0.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Annual deficits will grow to 3.4 percent of payroll (1.2 percent of GDP) by 2050 and 4.6 percent of payroll (1.6 percent of GDP) by 2098. Social Security’s 75-year actuarial imbalance totals 3.5 percent of payroll, which is over 1.2 percent of GDP or nearly $24 trillion in present value terms.

All of the above is meaningless for a Monetarily Sovereign government agency, although it would be correct for monetarily non-sovereign state/local government agencies.

In short, the CRFB, whether by intent or ignorance, confuses Monetarily Sovereign problems with monetarily non-sovereign problems. It’s like telling you that eating a piece of chocolate is dangerous for you because it happens to be dangerous for dogs. Such is the ignorance being promulgated.

The nonsense continues:

• Social Security’s finances have improved from last year but remain perilous. Its 75-year solvency gap was reduced from 3.61 to 3.50 percent of payroll due to stronger-than-expected economic performance and fewer expected disability applicants, partially offset by lower expected birth rates in future years.

• Time is running out to save Social Security. Policymakers have only a few years left to restore solvency to the program, and the longer they wait, the larger and more costly the necessary adjustments will be.

• Acting sooner allows more policy options to be considered, allows for more gradual phase in, and gives employees and employers time to plan.

What the CRFB really means by “time to plan” is “time to raise taxes and/or cut benefits, two wholly unnecessary options.

Who wants such terrible options? The rich, because those options will make the rich richer by widening the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

Cutting Social Security benefits and/or raising FICA taxes scarcely affect the rich, but they affect you, by making the rich richer. The CRFB is shilling for the rich at your expense.

The idiocy goes on and on:

Social Security’s retirement program is only nine years from insolvency, and action must be taken soon to prevent an across-the-board benefit cut for many current and future beneficiaries.

The action that  “must be taken” is for the federal government simply to put dollars into the fake “trust fund.” Better yet, the government could eliminate the fake “trust fund” and just pay for Social Security the same way it pays for Congress’s salaries: By voting and budgeting.

Best yet, the federal government could and should provide generous Social Security benefits to every man, woman, and child in America (aka Universal Basic Income) and stop lying to the public.

The Trustees project the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance (OASI) trust fund will deplete its reservesby 2033; the SSDI trust fund is in much stronger shape and will remain solvent over the next 75 years. On a theoretically combined basis – assuming revenue is reallocated between the trust funds – Social Security will become insolvent by 2035.

Upon insolvency of the OASI fund, all retirees – regardless of age, income, or need – will face a 21 percent across-the-board benefit cut,which will grow to 31 percent by the end of the 75-year projection window. We previously estimated that a typical couple retiring in the year of insolvency would face a $17,400 cut in their annual benefits.

On a combined basis, insolvency would lead to a 17 percent initial cut, growing to 27 percent by the end of the window.

The article goes on and on interminably, quoting misleading facts and figures and presenting ridiculous graphs, all designed to make you believe the federal government is running short of the dollars it creates every day from thin air.

I won’t bore you with the rest, partly because I can’t handle the nauseating lies, and you shouldn’t be forced to.

IN SUMMARY

Suppose you decide it is too much trouble to protest to your Congressperson and/or even believe the lies. In that case, your benefits will be cut — unnecessarily, your taxes will be increased — unnecessarily — and you will only have yourself to blame.

If you’re angry that your favorite team’s quarterback throws to the wrong jersey color and your favorite singer wasn’t nominated for a Grammy, save some of that emotion for the fact that you are being royally screwed by the people you just voted for, and you aren’t doing a damn thing about it.

Now repeat after me, “Bah, bah, bah.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell

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MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell;

https://www.academia.edu/

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY