CNBC
08 May 2012
CNBC’s Rick Santelli discusses what the French and Greek elections mean for Europe as it tries to solve its debt crisis and the state of U.S. debt and student loans.
Update: Is America Up To Solving The Coming Fiscal Crisis?
…NOW President Terry O’Neill cheered: “Trustees for the Social Security Trust Fund report today that the program can pay full benefits through 2033… Social Security has an accumulated surplus of more than $2.7 trillion and can pay 100 percent of benefits for the next several decades.”
This is an intentional misunderstanding of government accounting meant to disguise the real problems confronting Social Security and taxpayers. Yes, Social Security has a “Trust Fund,” which means that government accountants have dutifully tallied how much of the payroll tax dollars meant for Social Security have been spent on other government programs to date. As a result, technically, the general treasury “owes” the Social Security Administration trillions.
Yet this is the equivalent of saying that my left pocket owes my right pocket a million dollars…
