Please stop repeating false Republican talking points!

[Yo_Mama]

34. It weakens the assets in the Trust Fund

It really does. It doesn't change the total in the Trust Fund, but since the only way you can get money from the Trust Fund is through the General Fund, if we remove a huge revenue source from General Revenue (which this does), we are implying that the Trust Fund will become meaningless.

It's probable that the Trust Fund is already meaningless, and that these programs will have to be paid for through dedicated revenue streams.

If we are saying that the economy is too weak to withstand the impact of the FICA Tax (which already was too little to pay for the year's benefits), then we are saying the economy is too weak to pay SS for very long.

The Trust Fund is not a source of money from which to pay SS or DI benefits. It's a legal right to borrow. As long as that legal mandate to borrow were still the law, abolishing the trust fund would change absolutely nothing about how SS & DI benefits are paid.

This is not a right wing talking point at all - it's an important government accounting issue.

And the point is that we did not have to do this. We could have provided about as much stimulus simply by keeping the MWP tax credit and increasing it. That would have cost less overall and preserved the FICA structure.

Any tax cut that gives a household earning 150K a 3K tax cut, but gives a household earning 20K a $400 tax cut is a very ineffective stimulus. The payroll tax cut was never a good idea! And now we see the problem with it - many analysts are saying we will never be able to restore FICA to its current levels. That means effectively abandoning the SS system.