Thursday, March 10, 2005

How many more lies, sweet Jesus, how many? Part deux.

OK, not so much another lie as just a repetition of the same one. Over and over and, God help us, tediously over. From the latest Bamboozlepalooza in Kentucky, we have Admiral Bunnypants:

Now, first, you know, I'm sure some folks think that the Social Security trust is actually a system where the government has taken your payroll taxes, kept it for you, and then is going to give it back to you. This is a pay-as-you-go system. There's no such thing as a trust.

From the Social Security Administration web site,

Q: Is there really a Social Security trust fund?

A:
Yes. Presently, Social Security collects more in taxes than it pays in benefits. The excess is borrowed by the U.S. Treasury, which in turn issues special-issue Treasury bonds to Social Security. These bonds totaled $1.5 trillion at the beginning of 2004, and Social Security receives more than $80 billion annually in interest from them. However, Social Security is still basically a "pay-as-you-go" system as the $1.5 trillion is a small percent of benefit obligations.

How much longer can this go on? Seriously. Mainstream
media? Hello?

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