The next time some “Chicken Little” tries to convince you that the Social Security trust fund is empty, show them this annual accounting statement. Notice how in 2014, the trust fund earned $98 Billion by loaning the surplus back to other parts of the U.S. government.
That's a 3.7% annual rate of return and makes more economic sense than stuffing the money under the mattress (or in a lock box) where it earns no interest and gets eaten up by inflation.
Also note that the outlays for Disability Insurance (DI) exceeded income by $30 Billion so that amount of treasuries had to be sold by the Disability trust fund. How could all this happen if the trust fund were empty?
The Old-Age & Survivors Insurance (OASI) program can pay out full benefits until 2035. After that, even if nothing is changed, it can still pay out 77% of benefits from its dedicated payroll tax. A 23% cut to seniors is a terrible thing, but it’s hardly a 100% cut as if the Old-Age fund were completely empty. The Trustees specifically define “solvency” to mean the program can pay out full benefits for the next 75 years! That is a very high bar.
The Disability program, however, presents a much more urgent matter. Its trust fund will be depleted late next year (2016). Currently, the Old-Age fund gets 10.6% payroll tax, but the Disability fund gets just 1.8%. If nothing is changed, DI will only be able to pay out 81% of benefits owed.
Read the official report here:
http://www.ssa.gov/...
Eleven times in the past, Congress has temporarily reallocated funds between the Old-Age fund and the Disability fund to cover shortfalls. Unfortunately, Republicans voted early this year to block that reallocation solution in order to manufacture a Social Security crisis. Because... of course they did.
More facts about Social Security over the fold...
Social Security celebrated its 80th Birthday on August 14th, 2015. Since 1935, this very successful and dependable government programs has paid out every benefit owed and kept many seniors out of poverty. Republicans hate when govt works for the little people.
In 2014, 59 million people received Social Security benefits — 48 million through Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and 11 million through Disability Insurance (DI). Social Security benefits are modest — just $1,300 per month on average — but often it is all that stands between retirees and poverty.
According to the Pension Rights Center,
“7 out of 10 older Americans depend on Social Security for more than half of their income and one quarter of all retirees receive ALL their income from Social Security. If not for this vital program, nearly 15 million older Americans would be living in poverty.”
Indeed, before Social Security was enacted, nearly half of seniors lived in poverty. Today that number is down to 8% — still too high, but a marked improvement.
With recent and probably future Wall Street shenanigans with our 401ks and disappearing pensions, many more folks will need Social Security to survive. Shockingly, 62% of households age 55 to 64 have saved less than one time their annual salary for retirement — not nearly enough. So we should be expanding Social Security, not cutting it:
http://signforgood.com/...
Talk of “entitlement reform” and “privatizing” (“profitizing”) Social Security is just a ruse to funnel that $2.8 Trillion surplus into the Wall Street gambling casino. Oh the fees they will take! Don’t fall for the scam. We paid into this insurance program and darn straight we’re entitled to the return on our investment. Social Security is not welfare; it is a 100% earned benefit program.
So the next time someone starts talking about privatization, raising the retirement age or cutting benefits, simply tell them to “Scrap the Cap” and subject income over $118,500 to the same Social Security tax so the rich don’t pay a lower rate. Back in 1983, 90% of all income in the U.S. fell under the cap and was subject to the Social Security tax. With growing income inequality and more income going to the top, now only about 83% of all income falls under the Social Security cap. The Medicare payroll tax (for Part A Hospital portion) has no such wage cap.
And let's not forget that getting unemployed and underemployed folks back to full employment, as well as raising the minimum wage, will bring in more payroll taxes and further improve Social Security projections.
These are the easy fixes that the plutocrats and their puppets in office and in the corporate media don’t want the masses to know about.