Have both parties in Congress just performed a coup de grâce on social security?
To prep for this article, please refer to the linked illustration of the real-time US debt clock.
Now keep that information in mind as you read this:
The Senate broadly approved a measure expanding Social Security payments to millions of certain public sector workers, sending the measure to President Joe Biden for his signature.
The vote on the Social Security Fairness Act was 76-20. It previously passed the House in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 327-75 in November after rank-and-file lawmakers used a procedural measure, known as a discharge petition, to force a floor vote without House GOP leaders’ blessing.
“We will vote on taking up the Social Security Fairness Act to repeal flawed policies that eat away at the benefits of those who’ve worked as teachers, firefighters, postal workers, or public sector workers,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote.
If signed into law, the measure will expand Social Security benefits to public sector workers who also collect pensions.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the measure will cost more than $190 billion over the next decade and means the Social Security trust fund will “be exhausted roughly half a year earlier than it would be under current law.” [….]
If you think back to what you saw on the debt clock page, we already don’t have any money. And here we’ve got our elected officials ready to give $190 billion to a bunch of government workers who didn’t pay into social security in the first place. (They already have taxpayer-funded pensions.)
Our national debt is already equal to 136.48 percent of the total value of our economy. Social security itself – as is – is expected to run out of money in 2034. (That will be here before you know it.)
Looking at the vote totals, it’s clear that roughly half of the US Senate Republicans and a significant number of US House Republicans joined the Democrats in this fiasco. There is no happy ending for you when you spend more money without cutting any existing expenses. Try that with your own personal budget sometime. See how *well* that works.
Here is how the Congressional Research Service – Congress’s in-house source of info — described this legislative maneuver:
[…] The program’s income and outgo are accounted for with the
Social Security trust funds. They represent funds dedicated
to pay current and future Social Security benefits. In 2022,
the program had total income of $1.22 trillion (94.6% from
dedicated tax revenues), total expenditures of $1.24 trillion
(99.0% for benefit payments), and trust fund reserves of
$2.83 trillion (U.S. Treasury securities) available for future
program spending. Under the 2023 intermediate
assumptions, the Social Security Board of Trustees project,
with these asset reserves, the trust funds to remain “solvent”
until 2034 (the 2023 intermediate assumptions reflect the
trustees’ understanding of Social Security at the start of
2023). That is, until 2034, the trust funds are projected to be
able to pay full benefits scheduled under current law on a
timely basis. In 2034, however, the trust fund reserves are
projected to be depleted. While the program would continue
to operate with scheduled tax revenues, those revenues are
projected to cover about three-fourths of scheduled benefits
through the end of the projection period (2097). It is unclear
how the U.S. Treasury would handle the payment of
scheduled benefits under such a scenario. […]
If only these people were motivated as much by saving the country as they are by getting reelected. Just look at the debt piling up and all of the new spending like this being introduced. By mindlessly reelecting these people over and over, we’ve basically asked for this.
Soon, all it will take to collapse our economy will be some major world economic players deciding to no longer use the US dollar in their international trade, or some creditors calling in their debts. Sadly, those scenarios are not as far-fetched as you might think.
