Social Security no ‘entitlement’

Posted

Social Security — perhaps the most successful and popular of federal government programs — is consistently being reviewed and, yes, attacked with proposals for diminishing its benefit through a modification of eligibility and or a recalculation of the monthly payment.

 As you know, the program was passed into law in 1935 with benefits to begin in 1938.  As the depression recovery began to lose steam, the government moved the year for initial benefits to 1937 as a stimulus.  

The cost of the program was to be funded by the current payers into the system. Since it would have cost $8 million to fund the program forward, it was done that way to save money. Of course, at the time there was no way of knowing that there would be a war baby boom, which now threatens the program’s ability to pay full benefits in the future.

 President Roosevelt conceived the program as a trust fund to be kept apart from the federal budget. It wasn’t until the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson that the trust fund was pierced and its revenue began to be used for the general expenses of the federal government. That is how Social Security became part of the general expense budget.   

Now the only content of the trust fund that President Roosevelt signed into law is $4 trillion of IOUs from the government.  Yes, the government fleeced the money that you and your employers sent them from every one of your paychecks to be set aside for your retirement years. Now the government has the unmitigated gall to consider reducing benefits in any way shape or form.

 There was a day when the Social Security Administration website — along with the record of your earning that they mail each year — enabled you to calculate your monthly benefit yourself.  For some reason, in the “open” Obama Administration the website no longer provides that information.  I calculated my own Social Security, and was off by $3, which is my benefit for having served in the military.  This led me to discover how progressive the calculation is — and to a startling revelation.

Social Security, Howard Ring
Page 1 / 2

Comments