Angle lacks grasp of facts regarding Social Security
Las Vegas Sun, 8/30/10 - Chameleon Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate nominee, is on record having stated that she would phase out Social Security. She has denied making that statement and, in a recent ad, has done a 180-degree turn, stating she wants to save Social Security.
She accuses Sen. Harry Reid, her opponent, of “raiding the trust fund” and she wants to “put it (the money) back.” One person cannot “raid” the fund nor can he put the money back.
Liz Pulliam Weston, who writes for the MSN Money website, discussed some of the myths about Social Security. First of all, the trust fund does not hoard cash. She notes that three quarters of the money collected goes out the door for benefits. The surplus that isn’t needed is lent to the federal government to pay for other programs.
In return for the loans, the trust fund receives IOUs in the form of special-issue, interest-paying Treasury bonds, Weston writes. In the place of cash, the Treasury issues the fund additional bonds for the interest amount. In the past, the bonds have been cashed when the Social Security and Medicare funding ran low.
As more people apply for Social Security, it is estimated that in the next two years, more money will need to go out than is collected. The question is where will the money come from since the government has seen such huge deficits over the past 10 years? It doesn’t have the money to make the bonds good.
Weston concludes that possible solutions will not be popular: The government could increase the Social Security tax, reduce benefits and increase the minimum age for applying for Social Security.
The problem is perplexing, but to say that Reid is responsible is simplistic, illogical and unrealistic. Angle needs to do her homework.
Read the whole article
Angle lacks grasp of facts regarding Social Security
Las Vegas Sun, 8/30/10 - Chameleon Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate nominee, is on record having stated that she would phase out Social Security. She has denied making that statement and, in a recent ad, has done a 180-degree turn, stating she wants to save Social Security.
She accuses Sen. Harry Reid, her opponent, of “raiding the trust fund” and she wants to “put it (the money) back.” One person cannot “raid” the fund nor can he put the money back.
Liz Pulliam Weston, who writes for the MSN Money website, discussed some of the myths about Social Security. First of all, the trust fund does not hoard cash. She notes that three quarters of the money collected goes out the door for benefits. The surplus that isn’t needed is lent to the federal government to pay for other programs.
In return for the loans, the trust fund receives IOUs in the form of special-issue, interest-paying Treasury bonds, Weston writes. In the place of cash, the Treasury issues the fund additional bonds for the interest amount. In the past, the bonds have been cashed when the Social Security and Medicare funding ran low.
As more people apply for Social Security, it is estimated that in the next two years, more money will need to go out than is collected. The question is where will the money come from since the government has seen such huge deficits over the past 10 years? It doesn’t have the money to make the bonds good.
Weston concludes that possible solutions will not be popular: The government could increase the Social Security tax, reduce benefits and increase the minimum age for applying for Social Security.
The problem is perplexing, but to say that Reid is responsible is simplistic, illogical and unrealistic. Angle needs to do her homework.
Read the whole article
