Social Security, how we got here

Last week Barack Obama tried to force a budget deal with Congress he'd find favorable.  If the debt ceiling wasn't raised, his way he threatened to stop all Social Security and Federal Retirement Checks from going to to people who paid into those funds all there lives. Unfortunately he has that authority. I noticed he didn't mention stopping funding for his pet agenda programs or Air Force one. Obama care, to which no one has yet been forced to contribute to, would it seems still be funded as would his Race to the Top agenda.. Once upon a time, he would have not have had that power.

FDR Contributions will never
be used for anything except
Social Security

When Franklin Roosevelt started the Social Security Program, he swore to the American people the fund would never be used to fund anything except Social Security and under no circumstances would it ever be used to fund other government operations or programs. FDR died, it took a while, but so did his promise.

In the mid 1960's, Lyndon Johnson had a problem, actually he had a lot of problems, come to think of it he, himself was a problem, but that's another topic.  He'd started a war, a big very, very expensive war.   He'd also initiated his "Great Society" the largest social program the United States had ever undertaken and it wasn't cheap.  He needed money, and a lot of it, he also needed it quick.  Calling up the Federal Reserve and asking them him up an extra hundred billion or so wasn't an option.  Prior to 1964 the Federal government had to own a dollars worth of silver for every paper dollar it printed... Even though Johnson had managed to do away with that pesky little rule Americans weren't ready to accept the idea the Government could just print money on a whim.

America was safest when
LBJ Slept

The only place that had the kind of money Johnson was looking for was Social Security... From it's creation in 1935 Social Security had generated a "surplus'  by the time Johnson took office the surplus was huge, and it was just sitting there for the taking..  Except for a little law that said Social Security couldn't be touched for anything except Social Security and it was never to be placed into the General Fund...

If I recall he had a Democratic Congress, it wasn't hard to convince them to change the law.  Lots of extra money to play with, it could be used to pay for Social Programs, cover up excessive spending, budget shortfalls, pretty much anything except hired hookers for congressional orgies and some of that wouldn't surprise me at all. For almost 50 years Social Security has been used to hide reckless spending from the American People. Now we are told it's becoming governments biggest liability when in truth Social Security has never cost Government a penny.

The American people were told it didn't amount to much more than a change in accounting procedures..  Besides the Trust Fund was so huge not even Congress could manage to spent it all..  They also convinced us that the money they were taking would all be accounted for, and the fund would earn 3% on every cent the government borrowed..  As someone once said,  "You can fool all the people some of the time"  the suckers were --- make that, the American Public was fooled into believing their Government.  Congress never had any intention of paying back a penny, the population was still growing, since a much higher percentage of the population actually worked and paid taxes back then, not even Congress thought they could outspend Social Security's  growth.. rate..  Every year Congress took the Cash and replaced it with special  unmarketable, non negotiable government bonds.  Every year they dutifully paid the interest with the same worthless bonds...  It's kinda like covering bad checks, by writing more bad checks...

It took Congress less than 20 years to break the bank... By 1980 the Trust Fund Surplus was spent..  Congress was faced with having to repay the Trust Fund, and just as bad, they'd lose their slush fund.. ...  That wasn't going to happen The fix was simple, raise the retirement age and increase the Social Security Tax a little and force the American people to eat it, and like it...  In exchange we were told this was a forever fix..

The "Forever Fix" lasted less than thirty years..  we're back in the same boat,  Congress isn't going to give up there slush fund,  and they sure as hell aren't planning on repaying the money,  you can bet on that.  That leaves them two choices, screw the public again by raising the taxes and retirement age or admitting they've been committing the largest Criminal Fraud in history for the last 50 years. and telling the American taxpayer they have  to repay all the money they've paid into the system.

Both Party's are talking about fixing Social Security (again) and part, a small part of what they're saying is true, since it now takes two wage earners to support a family, the most productive citizens are having less children. The entire program was based on an ever expanding, productive, work force. America's women not having so many children has resulted in almost zero growth in the natural born population. r population growth is now dependent on immigration..

The other reason for fixing Social Security is simple, Congress wants back their slush fund, without Social Security as a creative accounting cover, Americans might find out the truth about the budget.

In my opinion we should break Social Security reveues, and payouts out of the budget completely, keep it as a seperate fund, as it was originaly promised. Then let congress talk about a fix, part of the fix needs to include life in prison for any politican that even suggests Congress should start raiding the fund again.

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