This is not exactly true. There actually is a SS trust fund and it has $2.6T. Unfortunately, it contains $2.6T in IOUs from the Treasury Department to SS. These IOUs represent a commitment by the Treasury Department to go out on the global markets to borrow money to pay SS benefits. The reason the "trust fund" contains $2.6T is that SS took in more in SS tax then they paid out in benefits for a long period of time. The excess went into the General Fund (i.e. was spent) and Treasury gave SS IOUs in exchange. What should have happened was SS taxes should have been adjusted annually to match the benefits paid. In this case, we would have $2.6T less debt today.
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Originally Posted by Guest
When both Dems and Reps are in agreement on the "Doc fix" you can be 99.9% sure they passed cost to next generation. As far as social security most people want to believe trust fund is solid until 2035 when in fact there is no trust fund just governent promise to tax next generation. SS paying out more than it takes in now with line going straight up now. My hat is off to Christie for having courage to even suggest system is already bankrupt.
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