FY 2008 Budget "Borrows" $674 Billion from Social Security
Sunday February 11, 2007
The FY 2008 Presidential Budget projects $2.662 trillion in revenue for FY 2008. One-fourth of this revenue is from payroll taxes that are supposed to go towards future Social Security benefits. Since these benefits aren't needed today, the government "borrows" from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for other costs.
This practice of borrowing from a retirement fund is very familiar to many workers who have borrowed from their 401(k). The difference is that (hopefully) the worker has a plan to pay back the loan, and continue to fund the retirement account.
The government, on the other hand, has no plan to pay back the loan from Social Security. Instead, its plan for at least the next five years is to continue to borrow from this retirement fund. In fact, by using Social Security payroll taxes, the government can even "balance" the budget by 2012.
The other difference, of course, is that the worker the government is borrowing from...is you.
(Source: OMB Budget FY 2008, Summary Tables Table S-1. Budget Totals)
Comments
The “Government” had done this too many times in the past and they wring their hands that there isn’t enough money in Social Security to continue for many more years!. This is robbing those who are retired and those soon to retire. I cry Foul.
Borrowing from Social Security is ludicrous since it is already going to be short of funds in the not to distance future. I thought Social Security was originally set up so that our wonderful nonthinking president and congress could touch it. Can you tell I am very annoyed because I have worked and will be 65 and 10 months eligible for full retirement in June 08. The government has already taken away my dead husbands railroad and retirement and social security. What a slap in the face.
The only thing that comes to mind is “this sucks”. I am sooo going to vote for the Democrats next time so they can try to rebuild what Mr. Bush and his cronies have destroyed, ie our security, both financial and national…
Mismanagement, malfeasance and misadministration on a scale that would land a ‘regular’ person in jail!
Our nation is being mismanaged and there isn’t [surprise] squat we can do about it.
It’s criminal and we, the people, should rise up and stop it!
P.O.’ed it is the Democrats who do not want the SS fund to be ‘fixed’. That would take all that money from their control.
Clinton was talking about fixing SS when the Monica story was front page and Kennedy, Kerry etal. were all for fixing. As soon as they lost power they did not think SS needs fixing. I wonder why? ? ?
If the government would stop stealing from the tax payers and responsibly balance the budget; SS would be self sustaining.
Isn’t that a kick in the a++. When the h+++ are they going to stop the B.S. They need to start using their own d+++ retirement fund instead of always using ours. Sad Bast++++.
So, rather than steam in our own juices, what can an individual actually DO.
I payed into SC when I was 13, and payed into till I retired at age 70.
I get a pittance compared to our Federal
Rep.& Senators get when they retire.Why
don’t they STEAL from their funds. They
since WW2,with no pay Back.
There is plenty you can do about the budget, and the timing is right now. Congress is debating it as we speak, and the Democratic leadership is really open to suggestion.
Here is an article from the U.S. Politics: Current Events Guide that will guide you to the budget process and how to contact the relevant Congressmen and Senators.
Thanks for your interest!
Kimberly Amadeo, Your Guide to the U.S. Economy
There is nothing you or I can do to stop this govt from robbing us blind, leaving us helpless to ever retire. Simple as that. Americans will do nothing except complain and congress is on the other side, they don’t care. Forget the President as he could care less about you or me. Our country is now a 2 class society, the super rich and the rest of us, just like it always has been, nothing has changed. We pay the taxes and the super rich get richer. We are peasants of the new world society. Our personal liberties are being taken from us and everyone expects someone else to fix the problem. The people in power are the problem unfortunately. They are the ones taking our freedom away and they are not going to stop. Americans are not going to rise up and go into the streets to protest either because they are too busy watching Fox news. I say again, there is nothing you or I can do except grin and bear it, hope maybe one day God will sort things out.
Hi Charles,
Thanks for your comment. Also, congratulations for taking an interest in what happens in the U.S. economy. I, too, often feel like we are powerless over what the government does, and that they do not have my best interests at heart.
However, I disagree that there is nothing we can do…which is why I created this site. We can all become aware of what is happening in the economy, and learn all we can about how it works. Then, we can and should learn how to take appropriate action to safeguard our own personal finances. There is plenty of information out there to learn how to do it, which I try to provide on this site.
Kimberly Amadeo
We have no chance!Get used to your downward drift in this country,when 0.1%(300,000)population make more then 20% of the rest of the country and every 8 yrs. the top 1% gain 1 billion $ & the rest of us lose 1 billion,when the corporations have “our elected officals”on their payrolls passing laws so they pay little to no tax and our taxs go entirely to the fed/reserve bank(not federal @ all, this is another story)to pay off all interest on the phony fed/reserve notes that pass for legal tender that’s value is drop’g like a rock