B
Beliavsky
Time Magazine, April 9, 2009
by Justin Fox
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1890542,00.html
Federal-budget worrywarts (myself included) have been fretting for
years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social
Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances.
Well, no need to worry about 2017 anymore. Thanks to the worst
economic downturn since the 1930s, the moment of reckoning is already
almost here: according to both the budget proposed by the White House
in February and projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) in March, Social Security benefits ($659 billion, according to
the CBO) will exceed payroll taxes ($653 billion) in fiscal 2009 for
the first time since 1984. Payroll-tax receipts generally hold up much
better in recessions than do income taxes, but job losses have been so
severe that the CBO expects them to decline slightly from 2008, while
benefits rise almost 9% because of cost-of-living adjustments and the
beginnings of the baby-boomer retirement wave.
If you count the $17 billion in income taxes expected to be paid on
Social Security benefits, the system will still manage to provide a
slight surplus for federal coffers in fiscal 2009. But from 2010
through 2012, there are small projected deficits, and after heading
back into the black from 2013 to 2015, the program will then become a
growing drain on federal finances, projects the CBO.
<rest of article at link>
Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme.
by Justin Fox
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1890542,00.html
Federal-budget worrywarts (myself included) have been fretting for
years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social
Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances.
Well, no need to worry about 2017 anymore. Thanks to the worst
economic downturn since the 1930s, the moment of reckoning is already
almost here: according to both the budget proposed by the White House
in February and projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) in March, Social Security benefits ($659 billion, according to
the CBO) will exceed payroll taxes ($653 billion) in fiscal 2009 for
the first time since 1984. Payroll-tax receipts generally hold up much
better in recessions than do income taxes, but job losses have been so
severe that the CBO expects them to decline slightly from 2008, while
benefits rise almost 9% because of cost-of-living adjustments and the
beginnings of the baby-boomer retirement wave.
If you count the $17 billion in income taxes expected to be paid on
Social Security benefits, the system will still manage to provide a
slight surplus for federal coffers in fiscal 2009. But from 2010
through 2012, there are small projected deficits, and after heading
back into the black from 2013 to 2015, the program will then become a
growing drain on federal finances, projects the CBO.
<rest of article at link>
Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme.