Originally Posted by RichieLion

Social Security tax is a specific deduction for a specific purpose. As such it's ostensibly a "tax fund". The fact that the federal government has decided to flow that money into the "general fund' doesn't change the definition and it should be thought of as a "dedicated fund".

But, given that everyone now agrees that the so called "Social Security Tax" is just thrown on the pile of general tax revenue of the Federal Budget with no real dedicated purpose, how is it these same people say that the Social Security fund is in danger?

if Social Security is just part of the federal budget, with no budget or trust fund of its own, then it’s just part of the federal budget. How can there be a Social Security crisis? All you can have is a general budget crisis. You might say that Social Security benefit payments might be one reason for that crisis, but it’s hard to make the case that it will be central.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/200...ty-trust-fund/