LA TIMES: Paul Ryan rehashes an old Social Security LIE--at your expense [View all]

[kpete]

Paul Ryan rehashes an old Social Security lie--at your expense

his misunderstandings--heck, let's go ahead and call them misrepresentations--are aimed at taking your money.

What's at issue is a passage in the budget resolution Ryan released today, the fourth annual version of his "Path to Prosperity" budget. Like the others, this budget calls for large cuts in government programs for the poor, in order to preserve tax breaks for the rich and finance lavish defense spending.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-paul-ryan-rehashes-20140401,0,6898624.story#ixzz2xgvajxIM

Here's the passage in question, from page 66 of his plan.

"Any value in the balances in the Social Security Trust Fund is derived from dubious government accounting. The trust fund is not a real savings account. From 1983 to 2010, it collected more Social Security taxes than it paid out in Social Security benefits. But the government borrowed all of these surpluses and spent them on other government programs unrelated to Social Security. The Trust Fund holds Treasury securities, but the ability to redeem these securities is completely dependent on the Treasury’s ability to raise money through taxes or borrowing."

....................

But if Ryan has his way, yes, the money will be stolen. It's up to you and me to make sure that doesn't happen. ... So, to put all these pieces together, there's no "dubious government accounting" involved here--the dubious accounting is all Ryan's. The trust fund is indeed a real savings account, involving deposits and interest. Yes, the government borrowed the money, and it has paid interest on it every year (duly recorded and published, down to the last dollar, in the annual reports of the Social Security trustees). ...

The most important factor is the one that people like Ryan want you to forget: The money in the Social Security trust fund came directly or indirectly from the payroll taxes paid by millions of American workers--100% of it. It was paid by workers in the trust that the government would pay it back. Paul Ryan is hinting, pretty strongly, that he doesn't want to pay it back.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-paul-ryan-rehashes-20140401,0,6898624.story#axzz2xguKz5W4