The theme of SSI’s website from the beginning has been “Stop the Raid” on the Social Security Trust Fund; No Healthcare Rationing. Today we are changing that theme to reflect new realities:
THE RAID COMPLETE; SOCIAL SECURITY IN DEFICIT; MEDICARE INSOLVENT
Former Senator Ernst Hollings (D-SC) was always fond of emphasizing the fraudulent nature of the government’s accounting for Social Security by saying “there is no trust and no fund.” He said that to make the point that every year Social Security ran a surplus by taking in more in taxes than it paid out in benefits, Congress pilfered the surplus revenues to spend on other programs and then left IOUs in the Trust Fund as a reminder of what had been stolen from retirees’ Social Security surpluses.
No Trust and No Fund. Any CEO of a private company would go to jail if he had managed employee pension funds the way Congress has managed Social Security for the past half century. Congress, however, puts itself above the law.
Those Social Security IOUs were literally “markers” in both senses of the word: i.) IOUs, and ii.) accounting entries tracking how much money was removed from the trust fund. They were not true assets of the federal government any more than an IOU I write to myself and my wife is an asset of my family. THEY ARE LIABILITIES, and unfunded liabilities to boot.
This year, the annual Social Security surpluses will turn negative: Social Security will take in less tax revenue than it pays out in benefits—roughly $30 billion less. In other words, Social Security is in deficit and rather than subsidizing the rest of the government will now become a drain on the rest of the government.
Congress has drained the Trust Fund dry every year for the past 15 years. Now, Social Security is experiencing negative cash flow and will drain the general fund. As a consequence, the Trust Fund will begin to shrink every year going forward. The Social Security Ponzi scheme has begun its slow-motion implosion that will require larger and larger federal subsidies out of the Treasury’s general fund each year to keep Social Security checks in the mail.
In the coming weeks, we will discuss what options are available to prevent Social Security’s implosion from reducing benefits paid to current retirees and to provide a security and prosperous retirement for the seniors of tomorrow. We also will address what options are available to deal with the even larger insolvency problem experienced by Medicare to prevent healthcare rationing for retirees.
Today, we are changing our banner as a daily reminder of the new realities:
THE RAID COMPLETE; SOCIAL SECURITY IN DEFICIT; MEDICARE INSOLVENT
For more details on today’s realities where Social Security and Medicare are concerned read and view more Here and Here 
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