|
What happened to Social Security and where do we go from here? The social net created to protect Americans from poverty in their retirement has been plundered. FICA taxes paid by the American workers into Social Security was intended as an investment into their financial security. It was to be administered by the government in the people's behalf. That was the plan! What happened beginning with the Reagan-Bush administrations is a violation of federal law. The people's money was not invested, it became part of the overall government's operational budget. Money poured into social security everyday and was spent everyday. This is the cause of the dilemma we are now in.
In 1983 the 15% raise of FICA tax became the plan to provide for the upcoming baby boomer generation. It was developed to assure coverage through 2040 when the trust fund was to be re-examined and adjusted if needed. The amount of money that poured into the coffers of social security created a surplus so that social security money could be paid each month with plenty left to invest. It was a government trust created between the American people and its government.
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush started this games of deception where $500,000,000 each day that comes in for social security is added to the overall government spending. This game to use social security surplus became a way to hide the actual deficit spending that started under Ronald Reagan and continued under George H.W. Bush. Bill Clinton, continued the practice during his first term in office. When he stopped using the social security funds during his second term, there was a concerted effort to protect social security funds. During the last two years of Bill Clinton's administration, social security was not violated and with other financial policies, a genuine surplus of the government's operational costs actually existed. In 2000 there was a surplus 0f $86.4 billion. It should be noted that Bill Clinton's Budget Reconciliation Act passed in 1993 without a single Republican vote. This courageous economic plan reversed 12 years of supply side, (Reagonomics trickle down economics,) and led to fiscal responsibility, eventually erasing the deficit. The prosperity we enjoyed during the Clinton years was a return to sound economic principles.
When George W. Bush came into office he was determined to return to the tax cuts policy of Reagan /Bush
George W. Bush is responsible for the financial crisis we are now in. But it must be noted that the Republican demands of repealing the Glass-Stegall Act of 1933 and signed by President Clinton in 1999 helped open the current financial melt-down. In 2001 and 2003 the tax cuts enacted by George W. Bush and the Republican majority led to our current financial collapse.
Where are we now? Today the national debt has risen above the $11 trillion mark. George W. Bush spent $1.37 trillion of social security surplus revenue during his eight years as president. In his last year alone he spent $526.million of our social security money each day. If you go to Parkersburg WV where the social security records are kept. You will find a record of empty non-government funded IOUs. Most people don't know that, or won't believe it. Yet it's true. Even George W. Bush admitted it! Beginning in 2017 the Social Security funds will run dry. The payout will be bigger than the intake and there are no public-issued secured bonds to protect us.
Perhaps if President Obama would decide to stop spending the $500 million a day that still comes in as social security surplus and invest that money in public-issued government bonds, we could begin to save social security. Paying back the 2.5 trillion owed to the American people and their social security could start by telling them the truth.
| 
Social Security