I really don't understand

I keep coming back because I forget to mention something.

Maybe I did say this before and have forgotten, but it is important.

Social Security is deficit neutral. By law it can not pay out more than it takes in or has on hand. If you eliminated Social Security completely it would do nothing for the deficit. Yet people talk about cutting Social Security claiming that will help to balance the budget. That is a lie. The only reasons to cut Social Security are ideological, not budgetary.

Such as the proposed payroll tax cut, which is without a doubt an attack on Social Security. There was something called the Making Work Pay tax credit in the stimulus bill. That was going to be extended, but the GOP wanted a payroll tax cut instead and the White House went right along with them. What’s the difference, you ask? Both cut taxes on the middle class, but the tax credit doesn’t hurt Social Security. Further, the payroll tax cut is framed as a temporary tax holiday, but just as letting the Bush tax cuts expire – as the law was written – was called a tax increase, you can bet that letting this temporary cut expire will be called a tax increase.

And when someone in DC screams tax hike, no one will let it happen. The 2% reduction in Social Security payments will continue, if not increase, and the cries of insolvency will become self-fulfilling prophecy.

Social Security is fully funded until 2037 and in decent shape until the end of the century. But attacks like this threaten it. And if you think you couldn’t possibly need it or were never going to get anything out of it, think again. I never thought I would be disabled. Not that it matters when it comes to helping people. I explained to someone recently that I didn’t support Social Security because I needed it. I’ve always supported it, even though I never thought that it would be around when I reached retirement age. I thought the attacks against it would be successful by then. I supported it because it was the right thing to do.

But there are people who have spent decades of their lives and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get rid of Social Security – more than $10 million was spent this October alone. They would be happy funneling tax dollars to Wall Street to handle retirement, but they object to letting the government do it. The stock market collapsed, more than once even since I was born. So far the US government hasn’t. But it looks like these people will be successful. If someone can’t make a profit, then no one gets the help they need. After all, all government spending must be bad.

So it looks like Social Security won’t be around when I reach retirement age. It might not be around in 2 or 3 years. The deficit won’t be any smaller, but senior citizens and the disabled will suffer. I can’t see any reason for that, but there must be a good one. Why else would it be a good policy for the richest nation in the world to let senior citizens and the disabled die in poverty?