Originally Posted by qtiger
Last year the government spent $144 million in "extra" social security taxes. And the year before I think it was $120 million, etc, etc, etc.
Cyclical patterns exist in population growth rates. Therefore, we should save this "extra" social security tax money (Projected $110 million this year, and guess what, it will be spent instead of saved) as a fund to last the United States through the worst of the baby boomers. How can we say "OMG we're running out of money!" while we're dipping from the SS taxes?
Second, did you know that you only pay social security taxes on the first $90,000 of income? And that if the social security tax was a flat tax on all income, enough addditional money would be raised to pay for full benefits all the way through the baby boomers?
No projection has seen the program bankrupt. The worst projections predict that it will only be able to pay out 75% of benefits, which is still a good short better than the guaranteed benefits under a privatized system. Once the baby boomers have all died off, the program will be solvent again.
Yes, you only pay SS tax on the first $90,000 of income -- and that's the way it should be.
Otherwise you end up with some rich guy paying $150,000+ a YEAR in social security taxes and frankly, that's just not fair at all. Not even in the least.
Bottom line, we've been dipping into the SS fund for years and years and years, and we need to stop it -- period. Since we seem unable to do that, we should privatize it -- or do SOMETHING with it.