Seven Reality Checks On Social Security

There are seven myths about Social Security. Here are the reality checks.


Social Security is an Entitlement - that is a program the government is required to pay whether it finances it or not; those arguing it isn't an entitlement claim it can't be because beneficiaries contributed to it - except that money goes to someone else.


Social Security wasn't robbed by politicians, it went bankrupt precisely by being a money shuffle.


Social Security pays out benefits its beneficiaries did not contribute to - again, because it is nothing but a money shuffle where someone pays for someone else's benefits.


Social Security's insolvency is far earlier than the often-claimed date of 2034.


Social Security never was "self-funed" - government was paying for it from the beginning.


The "rich" can't finance it.


Privatization was never attempted, despite media mythologizing to that effect

Medicaid, The Fraud That Keeps On Giving

California takes a ponzi scheme - Medicaid - and commits fraud.

Entitlements And Deficits

Democrats blame Trump's new tax law for potentially increasing the deficit.   As usual the facts prove them wrong - it remains entitlement spending.

Pension Bankrupcy Wants Bailouts Again

The multi-trillion dollar bankrupcies of pensions is a continuing problem and some want them bailed out. They shouldn't.

Trump Not Getting It On Entitlement Spending

Trump has not shown understanding of the reality that entitlement spending needs to be curtailed.

Hidden Debt Hidden Deficits

First this repost from May 15:

A new study has been released showing how state and local governments are $1.91 to $3.4 trillion in debt due to unfunded pensions.

Additional information comes here.

See also the progressive bankruptcy of Connecticut and Illinois.    

Update September 20: There is also this September video Entitlements And The Bidget.

Social Security's Coming Bankrupcy

Realistically of course Social Security like all ponzi schemes is already bankrupt, but the evidence of coming insolvency keeps getting bigger.

The Pension Crisis

First published on November 22, 1016:

The state pension crisis has saddled the next generation with a multi-trillion-dollar debt crisis - this piece looks at Florida's while this one looks at California's.


UPDATE, May 4, 2017: An additional study showcases public employee greed.

The Entitlement Addiction

Multiple trillions of dollars go to entitlements - and they've been flirting with bankruptcy forever. And the only way out is to cut entitlements.

The CBO And Obamacare

A lot of people don't trust the CBO - and it's because it is so often wrong. Some examples are presented where it gets it wrong.

Of course being flawed doesn't mean its data isn't worthwhile - as its recent estimate on Republicans' repeal effort shows it will among other things repeal penalties on employers as well as on individuals.

Also worth reading is this optimistic epistle on Obamacare's repeal.
UPDATE, August 17: The CBO's math used for Obamacare turns out to be fraudulent.

The Leftist-Ideological Complex

The Military-Industrial Complex was President Eisenhower making an economic point in a military conetxt

..".  . vast bureaucracies of civil servants, no longer servants and no longer civil." (Winston Churchill)

In 1961 President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the danger of a military-industrial complex. This powerful public-private collaboration, he said, had the potential to exert unwarranted influence over America's democratic processes. A half-century later, there are still those on the left who cling to this fear. But it seems that Eisenhower's warning had its intended effect—and perhaps then some. In 1961 defense spending constituted 9.1 percent of the gross domestic product, and there were 2,483,000 uniformed military personnel. Today, defense spending is 3.2 percent of GDP and 1,390,000 men and women serve in the uniformed military. If this behemoth is threatening America's democratic processes, it is not doing so very successfully.

My own sidebar - Eisenhower didn't oppose massive military spending - his enemy in the Republican Party Robert Taft "was more liberal than me" when it came to domestic spending. Eisenhower in fact feared a welfare state - what Lyndon Johnson and a Democratic Congress wound up hoisting on the nation.

There is, however, another interlocking public-private collaboration that is at once more insidious, more powerful, and more straightforwardly partisan: the liberal ideological complex. We do not always see this collaboration so clearly, because we tend to view each aspect of it as unique and not part of a larger picture. We look, for example, at public sector unions as a labor issue. We look at funding for Planned Parenthood through the lens of abortion policy. We look at EPA regulations and grants in terms of global warming and job destruction. And so on and so forth, down to the smallest, most narrowly tailored grant awards of the federal government.

The IOU Of Social Security

It isn't of course actual "security."  It's a slush fund and it's bankrupt. 

Never Learning From The Favors Of The 1960s

The same welfare entitlement and the same refusal to hold people accountable created savagery in the 1960s - and it's doing it again today, with the government's "civil rights" bullies leading the way.

Shifting Corner On Public Pensions

The bankruptcy of public pensions may finally be being faced.

Europe And Economic Reform

The welfare state continues to prove it doesn't work.

Bernie The Bozo As Sponge

Bernie Sanders never worked until he was 40, and he shows anew the non-credibility of his opinions by his blocking of the FDA, and thus exposing the failure of "single payer."

The Social Security Truth The NY Times Can't Admit

The NY Times is bloviating again about Social Security and once again can't admit the truth about the bankruptcy of this and other entitlements.

Some bottom lines -

Social Security costs have outrun the economy's ability to sustain the program, and it's only getting worse.

Politicians won't raise taxes to keep it solvent - that tax increases are advocated for Social Security merely illustrates the program's unsoundness.

Social Security is draining workers' standard of living.

The real problem with any entitlement - it is NOT a savings program, it is a money shuffle.

The program is becoming like collapsing state pension programs.

How Social Security’s COLA Politics Lead to Bad Policy

Yet more madness and failure from the entitlement pyramid scheme that is Social Security.

Free College Tuition Promised by Democrats Is One Big Illusion

Free College Tuition Promised by Democrats Is One Big Illusion

The Social Security Facade

Social Security has been bankrupt for generations and the burden down the road only gets worse.