Once again: The Social Security Trust Fund is neither a fiction nor bankrupt. That is a myth.

[allenwsmithphd]

54. The Awful Truth About the Social Security Trust Fund

"This claim is false. It's not "sort of" or "controversial," it's just outright false. Anyone who pushes this claim is either misinformed or outright lying."

I wish with all my heart that the above words were true, but they are not. I am a progressive Democrat
who has been immersed in researching Social Security funding ever since I first stumbled onto the "awful truth" while doing research for a book in 2000.

The United States government has been systematically
depositing all surplus revenue from the 1983 payroll tax hike into the general fund and spending it on wars and other government programs. Every dollar of the $2.6 trillion in surplus revenue generated by the 1983 payroll tax hike has been spent on other programs. Not a dime was saved, and unless money is saved, it cannot be invested. The government has replaced the money with $2.6 trillion in IOUs which are nothing more than accounting records of how much Social Security money has been spent. The IOUs, called special issues of the Treasury, are not bonds in the true since of the word. They have no monetary value and cannot be sold. So Social Security has nothing in reserves except those IOUs that may or may not be repaid. It is because of this terrible predicament that conservatives are pushing so hard to cut Social Security benefits. The surplus money was supposed to be used to buy public issue marketable Treasury bonds in the open market. If that had been done, these marketable bonds could be sold in the open market at any time by the Social Security trustees to raise cash with which to pay benefits. But the IOUs cannot be sold, and the government does not have the money to repay the money it has "borrowed" or "stolen." In addition, the government has never paid a dime in cash interest on its debt to Social Security. It "pays" interest simply by issuing more of the same worthless IOUs that are already in the trust fund.

On January 21, 2005, the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued the following indisputable statement. "There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down."

If you are interested in finding out more about the "great Social Security theft," please click on the following link. http://thebiglie.net. You can downloan a free copy of "The Looting of Social Security."

Allen W. Smith, Ph.D.