Social Security Trust Fund

Home Articles Social Security Trust Fund Sits In Government Filing Cabinet
Social Security Trust Fund Sits In Government Filing Cabinet | Print | E-mail
TSCL Calls On Congress to Enact Lock Box Legislation
There actually is a Social Security Trust Fund — of sorts. It lays nestled in the bottom drawer of an unremarkable filing cabinet in a government office building in West Virginia. It’s kept in a pair of loose-leaf notebooks holding plastic page covers, and each page resents a bond worth billions, according to a 2005 story from The Associated Press. Today, the total “assets” in the Social Security Trust Fund are worth more than $2.2 trillion.

The paper is “symbolic,” a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Public Debt says. According to The Associated Press, in 1994 Congress anticipated the current debate about Social Security’s solvency and whether the Trust Funds held anything more than I.O.U.s. Congress passed legislation requiring the Treasury to create a physical document “rather than an accounting entry.” Andy Jacobs, the former Indiana Congressman responsible for the law, said he wanted to rebut the “disingenuous assertions” that there was no trust fund, even though there was, in fact, no vault stuffed with cash to pay benefits.

Earlier this year the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Social Security Trust Fund ended 2007 with a rip roarin’ surplus of $187 billion, and this year the Trust Fund is projected to end with $197 billion. But almost all of that is “interest” earned on the IOUs. Just how much?
If the interest earned by the Social Security Trust Fund is excluded, and only real cash revenues counted, 2007 ended with a surplus of only $80 billion instead of $187 billion, and the Trust Fund is projected to end 2008 with a surplus of $79 billion instead of $197 billion, according to the 2008 Social Security Trustees Report. The Social Security Trustees further estimate that the program costs will begin to exceed cash revenues in 2017, or about nine years from now.

The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) believes that the first step to “saving” Social Security and Medicare is to stop the government from borrowing excess program revenues and to protect the extra funds for paying benefits. “If Congress is going to ‘save’ Medicare and Social Security, then lawmakers must stop using Medicare and Social Security Trust Fund monies as a piggybank for other government spending, ” states Daniel O’Connell, Chairman of TSCL. TSCL supports “The Social Security and Medicare Lock-Box Act” (H.R. 4338), introduced in the House by Representative Timothy Walberg (MI), and (S. 302), introduced in the Senate by Senator David Vitter (LA). The bill would establish a procedure to safeguard the surpluses of the Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance trust funds, and already has bi-partisan support.

Sources: “Social Security Trust Fund Sits In Drawer,” The Associated Press, February 28, 2005. “The Budget And Economic Outlook,” CBO, January 2008. 2008 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports, March 25, 2008.



Social Security Issues COLA
Notch
Totalization
SS Reform/Privatization

SS Reform/Privatization Info Articles
Questions & Answers

SS Reform/Privatization Action Center Sign Petitions
Track Important Bills
Congressional Responses
Legislative Updates


Legal Statement | Contact Us
Copyright © 2007 The Senior Citizens League | 703-548-5568 | 909 N. Washington St. #300, Alexandria, VA 22314
All Rights Reserved

PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE.

One of the top priorities you have as a citizen and voter is the protection of social security and medicare for current and future retirees.
Among top priorities I urge our elected representatives to defeat privatation and other propoaals that theaten our retirement security.
Presindent Roosevelt and Congress created Social Security in 1935 to protect retired Americans from a proverty ridden old age.
America's more than 36 million seniors have paid hard-earned money into Social Security and Medicare during their long working lives.
Social Security represent a covenant between the government and its citizens.

Social Security Benefits and COLA

ARE YOU CONCERNED BECAUSE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS DO NOT KEEP UP WITH SKYROCKETING MEDICARE PREMIUMS, PRESCIPTIONS, FOOD, FUEL, INSURANCE AND HEALTH CARE COST?
We older Americans need to make sure the COLA does the job it was designed to do--something that is more important than ever as costs keep rising
COLA IS FAILING TO DO ITS JOB!!!
It is a fact that for 24 years, government officials have known there is a major flaw in the way COLA is calculated and have not corrected it. Now there is legislation before congress that will make this correction--that will a larger and more fair annual COLA
This is not "extra" money--but the benefit to which you are entitled.
YOU EARNED IT AND SHOULD RECEIVE IT!!!!!
Your recent Social Security COLA was 2.3% about 20$ less than last year.
Legislation now before congress would correct the COLA calculation to more accurately reflect the buying patterns of older Americans. Over 100 Members of congress gave their written support to this change during the last session of Congress, and in a major effort to increase support for current COLA bills.
BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT IS PAYING YOU LESS THAN IT SHOULD YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY BUYING POWER IS DROPPING AS HEALTHCARE, PRESCRIOPTIONS, INSURANCE, FOOD AND OTHER COSTS RISE I AM SURE YOU FEEL THE REDUCTION IN YOUR BUYING POWER.
BEING IN MALDEN AN URGENT APPPEAL URGE YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS U.S. REPRESENTIVE MARKEY AND U.S. SENATORS SENATORS KENNEDY AND KERRY TO VOTE FOR LEGISLATION NOW IN CONGRESS TO HELP CORRECT A MAJOR FLAW IN THE WAY YOUR COCIAL SECURITY IS CALCULATED?

Social Security Over 70

Lyric Wallwork Winik
Published: August 7, 2005
Social Security Turns 70

Social Security turns 70 this month. While both sides debate how to keep the program healthy, here are a few fascinating facts about it:

* A legal secretary was the first person to collect monthly benefits. She paid $24.75 in taxes to the program (1937-39) before retiring and got back more than $22,000, living until 1975.

* The tax rate for Social Security (including the employer contribution) initially was 2%; it’s now 12.4%. In 1937, only the first $3000 of income was taxed; today, it’s $90,000.

* Last year, 48 million Americans got Social Security. Until 2004, even felons on the run were allowed benefits by law. A 2001 audit showed that $31 million had been paid to the dead, mostly because of poor record-keeping.

* The average monthly retirement benefit is $955; 40% of Americans over 65 reportedly would be in poverty without Social Security. In general, to qualify, you must spend 10 years in the workforce and earn the minimum each year (now $3680).