can someone explain taxes/budget/expenses

[scottw]

[QUOTE=spence;837563]That's a pretty lame response.

Originally Posted by scottw

there was a lot of money in the Bernie Maidoff trust on paper but it was mostly "invested"(spent)......the "Trust Fund" was invested into the massive expansion of the welfare state and the Great Society(aka Road to Ruin)...that "investment" should really pay off



Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

well, the assertions were ridicuolus sooooo...I guess it was a proportionate response....

the protests have begun....btw

From an economic standpoint, the question of whether the trust fund is fact or fiction comes down to whether the trust fund contributes to national savings or not.[16] If $1 added to the fund increases national savings by $1, the trust fund is real. If $1 added to the fund increases national savings by $0, the trust fund is not real. A substantial body of economic research argues that the trust funds have led to only a small to modest increase in national savings and that the bulk of the trust fund has been spent.[16][17][18][19] Others suggest a more significant savings effect.[20]

If the Social Security Trust Fund causes government spending to be higher and/or income tax rates to be lower, then the trust fund is not contributing to national savings. No money is being saved. On the other hand, if government spending and tax rates aren't affected by the existence of the trust fund, then the trust fund has contributed to national savings. If trust fund increases national savings, then it really is a trust fund and has fulfilled its purpose. This has been the subject of considerable controversy.


The economic question is not whether the bonds represent legal obligations that will be fulfilled, the economic question is whether the U.S. bonds held by Social Security represent savings by allowing Social Security taxes collected in the past to reduce the need for taxes in the future. Was the money added to the fund in 1984 actually saved so that it could be spent on a retiring baby boomer in 2020 without a tax increase? If the only way for the federal government to repay the bonds held by Social Security is by raising taxes in 2020, this suggests that the excess money collected in 1980 was spent on other government activities, not saved by Social Security. Those(fools) who believe the trust fund is real would say that tax increases would have been even higher without the trust fund.

this sounds very familiar.."if it weren't for me and my spending, things would have been much worse"