- Social Security
- Taxes
- Medicare
- Social safety net spending
- Immigrants and immigration
- Congress
- Health insurance
- Economy, inflation, tariffs, etc
- Federal spending, deficits and debt
- Foreign aid
- International relations, treaties and alliances
- The Constitution, civics, branches of government
All of this subject ignorance wouldn’t matter except people make decisions that harm themselves and support or promote policies that are not in anyone’s best interest.
Here is an example of fake information:
The Social Security (SS) trust funds are already redeeming Treasury bonds.
Here’s how it works:
1. Social Security now pays out more than it collects
Payroll tax income is no longer enough to cover all benefits, so the program must use its reserves. Those reserves are invested entirely in special U.S. Treasury securities (bonds).
To cover the shortfall:
- Social Security redeems (cashes in) some of those Treasury bonds
- The U.S. Treasury then provides the cash needed to pay benefits.
2. This process started several years ago
For the retirement program (OASI):
- Since about 2021, total benefits paid have been greater than payroll tax income.
- The difference has been covered by redeeming trust-fund bonds plus interest earnings.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Al Lindquist:
With SS many people look at this as money paid to their account by themselves and employer and then it sloshes around and you get “trust fund bonds” that maybe pay a higher rate of interest. Benefits have been added over the years and not paid for–the Christmas Tree effect.
Where did the SS Administration get these investable dollars to buy those special Treasury bonds–let’s assume from surpluses they used to run???–did the politicians raid the bank to fund some new program at the time? WOW!!! $69 billion in interest but on what dollar amount–did the Feds paid dwarfs my Money Market account at 4.2% last year.
So many believe (my parents did) that the money goes from one pocket to another–it’s one big pot of money as my father would say. Like a savings account–Christmas Club (remember those?)–CD’s–money market but in the end just one slug of money. Just one of many government programs that are broke, busted, and now account for $47 trillion in debt.
Never forget being invited to have dinner with a client family many years ago–during the course of the night Peter asked where we could invest $30,000 for brother Max–say I; “Max is still in high school where did he get $30,000 (was he selling wacky weed?)– says Peter; “when Dad turned 65 he collected SS and Max was about 15 or so and he also collected a cash benefit and will until age 18”. Christmas Tree!!!!
My father gets his first check–my mother also gets a check (in the mail in those days)–she calls me and asks if she needs to send it back–we subsequently found out that although she only worked for a 2-years during the war she was eligible under my Dad’s “plan”. Christmas Tree!!!!
So yes, folks (not you though) are uninformed because if they were maybe things would be different. Think of the lies you fell for but maybe you knew they were lies and bought them anyways. How could anyone believe the corpse was not mentally with it and that’s but one example? What did you say to Connie? “Demented Joe beats a SOB like Trump.”
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As you know there are individual accounts, we pay a tax to fund an insurance plan. Those taxes should be able to build a reserve and that reserve invested in treasury bonds at the going rate because it is a safe investment not subject to ups and downs.
The benefits paid are unrelated to taxes paid. Two people can have identical earnings and pay identical taxes, one married, one not and the married person can receive 50% more in benefits plus a spouse’s survivor benefit all on one earning record.
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Al Lindquist:
let’s take Treasury Bonds that you mentioned are safe not subject to volatility–assume you buy a 10-year Treasury for $100,000 at 5%–rates go up to 7%—you, after 5 years want to sell–I assume your principal has declined–now, this is you, me, anyone making the purchase and sale— is it different for the government when redeeming this “special” bond?
does the government sell bonds and the proceeds go to SS to make up the benefits which are not covered in the payroll tax–or, is the interest only ($69 billion in ’24) what SS receives–if they sell bonds I would assume they could lose money, or if rates make money.
I plead ignorance on the workings of SS that you so neatly and simply described–but I know bonds of all types are subject to volatility.
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The SS are special bonds they can’t fluctuate in value as other bonds.
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The real problem is not whether someone in the public at large knows anything about Social Security and funding it. The real problem to be concerned about are the 535 characters voted into position to do something about it. Worry over what some random person posts online is misplaced. Place your concerns on the witless 535 and hope they show some glimmer of knowledge about the program.
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Only to a certain extent because if people were informed and demanded the right changes it would happen.
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