Social Security's Enduring Truths

QUOTE from Ronald Reagan: 'I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."


I LEARNED some interesting information about Social Security while reading the June 2011 issue of the  AARP Bulletin. The most interesting article was the section entitled "Social Security's Enduring Truths" by James Roosevelt Jr. His subtitle was, "Despite the naysayers, the system's finances are sound." James is the grandson of FDR.

Mr. Roosevelt had this to say:
 There is a saying that if you repeat something often enough it becomes the truth. Nothing better illustrates that point than the notion that Social Security will be bankrupted by the boomers. Indeed, Social Security's critics have been saying for 75 years that Social Security would collapse.

James went on to say that here is the true measure of where we are. Social Security costs ae funded out of its own dedicated revenue stream. It does not and cannot borrow money to finance its operations. There is no deficit financing. Social Security is the epitome of Yankee frugality. It could not be better managed. The administrative cost is .09 percent. It returns more than 99 cents to beneficiaries on every dollar collected. I dare you to find a private retirement plan that can claim that.

By the end of 2010, the Social Security trust fund had a positive balance of $2.6 trillion. As a result of interest earned on the trust fund balances, the find's surplus will continue to expand to approximately $3.67 trillion at the end of 2022. After that year, it is projected that the balance will begin to decline. Still, reserves will be sufficient to pay full benefits through the year 2036. After that, Social Security would still be able to pay for 77% of benefits.Since when is news that a program is completely solvent for 25 years bad news? Even in year 26 and thereafter it could still fund three-fourths of anticipated benefits. This is decidedly not a program that is broke or going broke. In fact, this is quite a remarkable achievement.

(I have a tendency to believe James Roosevelt Jr. than the naysayers who keep harping that Social Security is going broke and we need to privatize it. Privatization will destroy Social Security and put millions and millions of America's seniors in financial disaster. I'm sorry but I have more faith in the government of the U.S. than I do in the Wall Street barons.)

HUMOR for today:
An elderly woman died last month. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote, "They wouldn't take me out while I was alive, I don't want them to take me out when I'm dead."