Reply #14: or "SS cost $67.2 billion in general revenue" [View All]

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Giving ammunition to those who say SS affects the deficit/debt.

They way they mix the general and SS books is criminal - or it would be if a corporation did it. Using "special bonds" instead of normal treasury bills to transfer money and calling the collection of those "special bonds" a trust fund is just a way of hiding what they are doing. It looks like this transfer was done appropriately, but the fact that Congress can play with SS funds this way is what got us into the SS trouble in the first place. Payroll tax needs to fund SS and nothing else. It needs to go up/down according to what SS needs. If they have extra revenue one year they need to buy normal bonds (i.e. marketable bonds so the Trust fund can sell them even if Congress doesn't approve)