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Post by tecoyah on Mar 10, 2006 16:27:37 GMT -6
Looks like a great forum....and I hope to gain insight as you grow, Good Job
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 10, 2006 23:36:22 GMT -6
Tecoyah,
Thanks for joining and glad to have you aboard.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 12, 2006 14:49:42 GMT -6
LC,
Here's my best answer on how the Social Security surplus is being pilfered to finance tax cuts. Again, most of this comes from Dr. Batra's Greenspan's Fraud.
From 1969 on, the Social Security surplus was included in what is known as the unified budget. This enabled any Social Security surpluses to be subtracted from the total Federal budget deficit. This had generally been a negligible amount prior to 1983.
In 1983, "Greed-span" started espousing grave warnings about future Social Security insolvency, due to anticipated future shortfalls. Prior to this time, despite its inclusion in the unified budget, Social Security had been essentially a pay-as-you-go system. The payouts had been roughly the same as the incoming revenue.
In 1983, Greedspan urged that payroll taxes be increased in order to pay off anticipated FUTURE shortfalls. In order to do so, it was necessary to increase current taxes in excess of current outlays.
Social Security taxes were increased in 1983, and total federal revenue was increased by the amount of the surplus created in the Social Security Trust fund. This increase partially offset the huge deficits created by Reagan's high-end tax cuts. Thus the real Federal deficit created appeared lower.
The government simply borrows the entire surplus and issues a bond (the infamous IOU's) to the trust fund as a promise to pay back the money. Thus annual Federal expenditures are paid by the various tax revenues from the IRS plus any annual surplus in Social Security revenue.
Once again, the issuance of a bond by the Treasury is nothing but a loan to the Federal government.
As a result of this, I use the total increase in Federal Debt as my measure of the true budget "deficit." The government is borrowing money from lenders to finance the official annual deficit, and borrowing money from future Social Security payouts to fund the remainder of the annual increase in National debt.
Though the government technically does actually get the money it receives from the annual Social Security surplus, it's money it's obligated to pay back to beneficiaries.
I'd like to know what rocket scientist came up with the idea of a "unified budget." It looks like "unified propaganda" to me. It probably coincides with the birth of the first Supply-Side mythologist.
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Post by lc on Apr 12, 2006 15:13:56 GMT -6
n
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 12, 2006 15:46:11 GMT -6
There were some holes in the explanation like under what authority the unified budget was enabled, LOL. 'What authority' is a great question. Today the answer would be simple. By executive order. Like any other time this administration sidesteps the law. Just change the law, or its interpretation. And make it retroactive. In 1969, I think they actually did need some kind of authority, but I don't know what that was. In contrast, no such authority appears necessary today. It's interesting that it wasn't until a Supply-Sider administration took office that this "unified deficit" connivery began to be exploited. And the Bush moron-ocracy has taken this to new heights. (or maybe I should say to new "depths.")
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