Monday, July 11, 2016

The Impending Death of Social Security

                                                                         

January 1st, 2034

Dear Citizen

We regret to inform you that, of the some $50 trillion dollars the Social Security Program collected since its inception in 1934, none of those program trust funds remain.  Accordingly, the U.S. Treasury has directed an immediate 30 percent cut, across the board, of all pension holders.

We hope these cuts will not have too severe a financial burden to you and your family, but, regrettably the United States Treasury simply does not possess sufficient funds to meet the program's many obligations.

Your Respectful Servant,

Director, Social Security Administration


Dateline Atlanta
June 16th, 2016
(AP)

The Social Security Administration released its annual report this morning.  SSA auditors report that, as of January, 2034, the Social Security Administration will have exhausted program reserves, necessitating severe cuts to all beneficiaries.  


My dear and faithful blog readers...both of the two entries are sadly true.  As you no doubt already knew, Social Security is broke, even as the program has collected tens of trillions of dollars in Social Security taxes over the past 80 years, the program can no longer meet its fiduciary obligations to American pensioners.

The death knell for Social Security began to sound in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson, trying to fund The Great Society and the Vietnam War at the same time, signed a bill into law which authorized all Social Security funds to be mingled with the Treasury's General Fund.  This enabled politicians to dramatically step up federal funding for programs that might keep them in their seats of power in both the Oval Office and in Congress.

Compounding the problem, President Jimmy Carter expanded payouts for Social Security through the authorization of Social Security SSI which approved Social Security payouts to resident aliens who had never paid into the program.   Coincidental to that act, the massive 20 percent annual inflation rates during the Carter years necessitated massive cost of living payouts to keep our senior citizens off of the Alpo Diet...not having to resort to eating dog food to survive during those inflation plagued years.  

The next great death knell sounded when President Obama appropriated $600 million dollars from the Social Security Program to pay for Obamacare for illegal aliens and American citizens unable or unwilling to pay for their own healthcare.

So the Social Security Program is essentially dead.  If government auditors were held to the same Fair Practices Standards as private business they would be required to report "unfunded liabilities" the program is saddle with.......tens of trillions in payouts that will not be made.

Incidently, if you are considering suing the federal government over mismanagement of your retirement money, I would advise you not to waste your time.  That has already been done, and the Supreme Court in "Flemming vs Nestor" ruled as follows "entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractural right" and therefore unenforceable.

Dear readers, all I can say is "stock up on Alpo".

Sad.  Damned Sad.


3 comments:

Jerry Carlin said...

I am from the Government and I am here to Help You!

theRandyGuy said...

Add to your piece the continual articles from financial advisors pointing out the fact that Americans are not saving $ (at least not enough to provide for themselves in retirement). Taken together, the reality is: 1) The demand for SS $ will intensify at the very time the system is financially strapped and fewer workers are paying into the system (in 2030, projections are just over 2.2 workers will pay into the system for each beneficiary), and 2) The options for "reform" are limited to two - cut benefits (not going to happen), or raise taxes. Pols won't let it go that long, so look for HRC to propose (and Congress to approve) large tax increases to prop up SS. Those of us that saw this coming years ago have planned for it. God help those that haven't and actually count on getting that money.

A Modest Scribler said...

Yes to Jerry, and yes to Randy. I only with our nanny masters were quite as "helpful".