Currents
November 2016
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recent decades, the plan has been to “save” Social
Security by destroying it - again, replacing it with
means-tested welfare, but now also with inadequate
401k-type layered on top, as sugar-coating.
The American people have never let it happen,
and the Democratic Party is now solidly with them,
pushing to expand, not cut, Social Security. Stymied
in their efforts to destroy Social Security legislatively,
the system's opponents are relying on another tactic,
involving small cuts, largely imperceptible to the
American people and ultimately lethal.
To recognize the stealth war
on Social Security, it is essential to
understand that the funds
deducted for Social Security from
workers' paychecks do not just
pay for monthly benefits. Those
funds also pay every penny of
Social Security's administrative
costs. These include the local
offices around the country, the 1800 number, the workers who
administer the disability claims
system, and other personnel and
services that are necessary to
ensure that Americans receive
their earned benefits in an accurate, timely, and efficient manner.
Just like the benefits themselves,
these
administrative
expenses are fully funded. Social
Security has no borrowing
authority. Indeed, Social Security
has a $2.8 trillion accumulated
surplus. In 2015 alone, it ran a
surplus of $23 billion. There is
plenty of money for administration.
Congress does not appropriate
a penny for those administrative
costs. What it does is limit how
much of that huge surplus and
incoming revenue can be used by
the Social Security Administration
for administration of the program
in any given year.
Just since 2010, Congress has
required that SSA spend ten percent less, in real dollars, than
what it was spending before. Ten
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