{"id":58644,"date":"2023-08-23T10:36:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T14:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58644"},"modified":"2023-08-23T10:37:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T14:37:02","slug":"what-about-all-the-money-congress-stole-from-social-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/08\/what-about-all-the-money-congress-stole-from-social-security\/","title":{"rendered":"What About All the Money Congress Stole from Social Security?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is there any way that Congress will vote to pay back the Social Security funds they took for their stupid reasons, and left IOUs in place of the funds? Because of the funds they took going back many years, we didn’t have any decent COLAs for a few years. In fact, there were I think 3-5 years that we didn’t get any COLA. Please Rusty, can you find out if this is true or false? Help us seniors! Signed: Resentful Senior<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Social security card and American money dollar bills close up concept<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dear Resentful Senior:<\/em><\/strong> I can assure you that I\u2019ve fully investigated the allegation that politicians have squandered Social Security\u2019s money and found that charge to be, simply speaking, a myth. I\u2019ve gone back and looked at Social Security revenues and expenses since the government first started collecting FICA payroll taxes in 1937 and found that every dollar ever collected for Social Security has been used only for Social Security purposes. Over the years, various claims have been made that the money has been used for other things, but I\u2019ve researched each of these charges and found them all to be false. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the misconception mostly originates is that any excess money collected from working Americans for Social Security is invested in \u201cspecial issue government bonds\u201d which pay interest, as mandated by President Roosevelt when Social Security began. As with any investment, a financial obligation instrument is given in return for dollars received. Remember when we used to buy \u201cU.S. Savings Bonds?\u201d We\u2019d use our money to buy those bonds, hold them, and later redeem them for a higher amount than we paid. That\u2019s exactly how Social Security contributions have always worked \u2013 excess money collected from working Americans is used to purchase special issue government bonds which are held in reserve, earning interest, for future Social Security needs. These special bonds reside in a Social Security Trust Fund and, as of the end of 2022, were worth about $2.8 trillion. Are these bonds \u201cworthless IOUs\u201d as some would claim? Hardly, since they are redeemable as needed to pay Social Security benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering that, since 2010, Social Security\u2019s income from payroll taxes on American workers has been less than needed to cover benefits paid out, redemption of bonds held in the Trust Fund is the only reason that Social Security has been able to continue paying full benefits to every beneficiary. The Trust Fund is a financial safety net which is now protecting all SS beneficiaries from having their benefits cut. Problem is, unless Congress acts soon to reform Social Security\u2019s financial picture, the Trust Fund will be fully depleted in about 2033 resulting in about a 23% cut in everyone\u2019s monthly Social Security benefit. I\u2019m optimistic that will not happen (it would be political suicide) and, hopefully, Congress will act soon to reform Social Security and restore it to financial solvency and avoid a future cut in everyone\u2019s benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) and the lack thereof for several past years, COLA is determined by the government\u2019s standard inflation measure \u2013 the Consumer Price Index (CPI). There were several years (2010, 2011, and 2016) in which the CPI showed no inflation so, therefore, no COLA increase was given. Last year, due to soaring inflation, everyone got an 8.7% increase in their Social Security benefit, but that doesn\u2019t happen every year. FYI, the average annual COLA increase over the last two decades has been about 2.6%, although COLA for each year can be wildly different depending on each year\u2019s inflation measure. In any case, the lack of a COLA increase in past years was not a result of any political chicanery, it was the result of low inflation during those years.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there any way that Congress will vote to pay back the Social Security funds they took for their stupid reasons, and left IOUs in place of the funds? Because… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2525],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58645,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58644\/revisions\/58645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}