And no politician seems to want to talk about it.
It seems that right now, today, there's more money being paid in than is going out. That situation has been with us for a long time, and we get to say,"Goodie, Goodie, we're in the money."
But not so fast! We've all (at least I hope) heard that Social Security Trust funds will need to be used starting in 2008, because there will be LESS money coming in than is going out.
Fine! We can handle that! After all, we've had a surplus going into the general fund for a long time! There must be lots of money there!
And here's the problem.....There's no big pile of money sitting there, waiting to be used. There's just a bunch of IOU's from the Federal Government (that's you and me in disguise). All that surplus got spent. It got spent to keep the Federal Government running, and fund all those amazing pork barrel projects. In order for the Social Security Trust Fund to pay retirees their full entitlement (and it is an entitlement, whether you like it or not), either taxes must be raised, or starting in 2008, retirees are going to get hosed out of their benefits, or something else is going to be unfunded to get the money to retirees.
Of course, there are other alternatives. Have you read "Soylent Green"? Now there's patriotism!
It seems that right now, today, there's more money being paid in than is going out. That situation has been with us for a long time, and we get to say,"Goodie, Goodie, we're in the money."
But not so fast! We've all (at least I hope) heard that Social Security Trust funds will need to be used starting in 2008, because there will be LESS money coming in than is going out.
Fine! We can handle that! After all, we've had a surplus going into the general fund for a long time! There must be lots of money there!
And here's the problem.....There's no big pile of money sitting there, waiting to be used. There's just a bunch of IOU's from the Federal Government (that's you and me in disguise). All that surplus got spent. It got spent to keep the Federal Government running, and fund all those amazing pork barrel projects. In order for the Social Security Trust Fund to pay retirees their full entitlement (and it is an entitlement, whether you like it or not), either taxes must be raised, or starting in 2008, retirees are going to get hosed out of their benefits, or something else is going to be unfunded to get the money to retirees.
Of course, there are other alternatives. Have you read "Soylent Green"? Now there's patriotism!
