Will the "demon" social security save us again

Social Security funds, the supplemental acct for seniors, has been the piggy bank of the federal government for years.

It really took off under Reagan when they upped the income limits, and a huge surplus of money came into the treasury.


The federal government started "borrowing"from social security and using that money to offset the budget shortfalls and replacing it with "bonds"

The social security system is still far into the black, with the feds using every penny that does not go out in payments as the collateral to borrow from to keep the country afloat.

Social Security funds are collateral what the Chinese, Brits, Japanese, etc lend us money on. It has always amused me at how the right will rail against SS funds, and wanting to privatize, while spending every single penny they get their hands on.

If they had actually privatized part of ss funds earlier, we would have hit this juncture even quicker. But Barack has always run on lifting the ss caps to cover higher incomes.

If he does that, will it keep the ss in the black but will also keep the collateral in so we can borrow our way back to some type of fiscal sanity aka Bill Clinton style?

Not sure, we are in really untested waters. But Obama seems to be the type of person who could use the bail out as a point to actually make money off of the 700 billion that could possibly go out. He has always seen the bigger picture of where social security monies have moved this country into the richest in the world, by having that pot to build off of.

Just sitting here musing at the keyboard. :donut:

That way you get the Treasury bonds to placate the foreign investors without having to run a 1 - 2 trilion dollar Federal annual deficit.

The key is the more than $700 billion per year trade deficit.

If the foreigners won't take anything but Treasuries, it is a huge problem to create enough Treasuries to cover the trade deficit.

I do not envy him.. This administrations will have those funds so tied up it will take a Harvard genius to get us through those treacherous financial waters.

I for the life of me cannot see how McCain will be able to address it. His stance on SS funds is privatizing part of them. At this stage of the game, it would be a deal breaker with the foreign banks that are holding our paper, and who we depend on to fund out budget.