It was easy enough to miss the press release. Goodness knows there was a lot to pay attention to this week. If you missed it, the government announced its payouts to social security and disability payments had hit annual records, even though there was still a month left in the budget year.Is it any wonder that Gerri Willis at Fox Business is the only one reporting on this?
Through the end of August, the federal government paid out more than $591 billion. That's $3 billion more in social security benefits and $129 billion more in disability benefits than last year.
There is more evidence of the growing claim of entitlements on our budget and while nobody begrudges retirees who've spent their lives paying into social security claiming their fair share, the numbers of Americans getting disability benefits is concerning.
"Social Security" has never been secure. From it's inception, "Social Security" has been one of the biggest lies ever perpetrated on the American people. People like Bernie Madoff get thrown in jail for life for schemes a million times less than "Social Security". Every time you bring this up, you will have some liberal screaming "liar" in your face: "Social Security" is the world's biggest ponzi scheme, promising fantastic returns on money that doesn't even exist. Consider this:
Most people have never heard of Ida May Fuller, the first "Social Security" recipient. The "Social Security" web site paints a sweet picture of Ida May and 'm sure she was a sweet lady. But the SSA history page on Ida May doesn't tell the whole story. The whole story is that Ida May Fuller paid $24.75 into the system and ended up collecting nearly $23,000 by the time she died in 1975 -- a thousand times more than she paid in. And so it still goes today.
- Take a look at your FICA tax on your paycheck -- that's your contribution to the "Social Security trust fund", write that number down and compare it to the amount of monthly benefits the SSA claims you will be paid at retirement.
- Now consider that hundreds of millions of Americans (and immigrants) are promised the same type of deal -- pay in far less that you receive at retirement.
- Now consider that there is no "Social Security trust fund". Money from general revenues has been used to pay "Social Security". For over 40 years, politicians have been raiding the 'Social Security trust fund" and have replaced the money with IOUs. It is not being invested and producing high returns as it would have to be in order to fulfill the promises made on those "Social Security" statements. Social Security has been paid out of general revenues for decades. That means current workers are paying the benefits for current recipients. And the ratio of workers to recipients has been plummeting from 49 workers to one recipient in the 40s to less then three workers to one recipient today. It has been unsustainable since it's inception and its burden is increasing astronomically every year.
The only way to save this program, like Medicare, is to phase it out, preserving it for Americans over a certain age and paying the money back to younger Americans to invest on their own. If we don't follow this path, we're headed for certain financial catastrophe.
Will politicians have the guts to take this on? It's not likely. The Democrat's socialist welfare programs have been entrenched for decades and are now virtually impossible to dislodge. But someone is going to have to take this on and soon because we are headed for a monumental collapse.
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