Social Security - just the facts

Update from Rep. Xavier Becerra's 31st CA Congressional District:

THE RESULTS ARE IN ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Do you ever worry that Social Security might not be there for you when you need it? On May 13, the Trustees of the Social Security Trust Fund released their annual report that affirmatively answers that question: yes, Social Security is alive and well. Below you will find some highlights from the Trustee’s report and important facts about Social Security:

•Amount of annual surplus in 2011: $69 billion

•Projected Trust Fund Balance for 2011: $2.7 trillion

•Number of years Social Security is projected to be able to pay full benefits, without any

shortfall: 25 years

•Cost of administering Social Security as percentage of total expenditures: 0.9%

•Average monthly Social Security benefit received by retired Americans: $1,164

•Drop in value of private retirement accounts during the Great Recession: $2.8 trillion

•Drop in value of Social Security benefits during the Great Recession: $0

•Number of recessions Social Security has weathered without failing to pay benefits: 13

•Number of times Social Security has failed to pay an earned benefit: 0

In response to the Trustees' report Rep. Becerra, the highest ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, said: “Today’s report confirms what we already know: Social Security will weather the storm once again. You simply can’t buy the kind of retirement, disability and life-insurance protection on the private market that Social Security provides.”

And I expect Medicare has some similarly low administrative cost. Someone needs to get out there with a direct comparison of Medicare with any one of our private health care companies.

in the House like Rep. Becerra, it would be a very different, very good place. I wish he'd get more exposure because he's a fearless advocate for his constituents. He's also one of the winningest House members - one year he ran unopposed.

:patriot:

DU ain't a good enough source for posting this on other web sites or blogs.

I appreciate your efforts. Now folks can see the Congressman's high school art competition, too.

:hi:

facts are irrelevant to them

They have been paying for some 20 years, and will pay another 25 or so, then get 78 cents on the dollar?

Take your voucher, good luck, and you're on your own.

Thom Hartmann made a stunningly accurate statement yesterday: "Paul Ryan is the spearhead of the Koch brothers."

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/rnr/2414021037.html
(shared) :)

First: •Amount of annual surplus in 2011: $69 billion

How can we know that? 2011 isn't even half over yet.

Second: •Projected Trust Fund Balance for 2011: $2.7 trillion

Ok, when is the government going to run the surpluses needed to pay that back without either reborrowing it from the open market (China, etc.) or inflating the currency by printing money to redeem those specialized Treasury securities that constitute the trust fund?

Third: •Drop in value of Social Security benefits during the Great Recession: $0

That would be true if inflation during the Great Recession was zero. We all know it hasn't been like that, even though COLA's have been stagnant.

Fourth: •Number of recessions Social Security has weathered without failing to pay benefits: 13

True, but in all those recessions, good paying jobs returned to shore up the system with high FICA taxes. The current 'recovery', if you can call it that, has seen many people take drastic cuts in pay from what they did back in 2007, IF they've been lucky enough to get a job. If the jobs that pay decently come back, then Social Security might be able to meet the projections of lasting another couple of decades before really hitting the wall.

Here's another fact: The very first wave of baby boomers to collect full benefits is just hitting the Social Security System this year. Behind them is a wave of people that will only crest when the folks born in 1957 are eligible to collect a full benefit, and they will be followed by the still-strong ebbing of the boomers for another seven years. My guess is that many, if not most, of the people first collecting this year will still be on the rolls.

How will Social Security survive a crisis the likes of which it has never seen before? It survived before by raising taxes on the baby boom generation, that sure can't happen again.

to the Trustee's Report. I think you'll find some pretty comprehensible info there.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html