Why does our govenment refer to Social Security as an Entitlment?

Other entitlement programs are not Ponzi schemes, since their funding isn't limited by law to a specific tax: FICA. Medicare and Medicaid are funded by multiple sources, including deficit spending, Social Security isn't.

 

but Congress can change that at any time, or increase SS taxes. Calling it a Ponzi scheme simply isn't accurate.

 

Well when Congress changes it, then it won't be a Ponzi scheme. But as currently configured, it is.

 

I agree. Social Security has been and continues to be self-funded with reliance on the General Fund. So long as that's true, Social Security should not be lumped in with the General Fund and Federal Budget.

Actually, yes.

You and your employer both pay SUTA and FUTA (State unemployment tax and Federal unemployment tax). Like Social Security, your unemployment benefit is based on your income, and not how much you've paid in taxes.

Any scheme that requires new participants to sustain is a Ponzi Scheme. That makes Social Security a Ponzi Scheme. If Social Security was self-maintaining through its investments and did not require new participants, then it wouldn't be a Ponzi Scheme.

 

Easy, SS was sold to the public as an insurance program but argued in court as a tax and spend entitlement. Government insurance was already deemed unconstitutional by SCOTUS.

 

Social security was created so old people do not have to eat dog food.

 

Your opinion is Irrelevant to the discussion and facts.

 

And you're not Molly Hatchet
More like Molly Ringwald.

 

Typical idiotic liberal response.

 

Actually, it is not.
You steal some album cover.
Put Make America Great Again on it, & suddenly you turn into Billy Bob bad azz.
When actually, you are not.
If you don't want people to throw rocks at you, you shouldn't throw rocks at them.
I'll bet you got hit a lot in high school.

 

Ah, the usual idiotic response. To be expected.

 

some of the dumbest don't understand how a ponzi scheme works

 

Social security is the reason they will have to

 

You're a perfect example of the BS that Republicans spew in order to screw with Social Security

 

Your government stole your funds and replaced them with bonds payable by itself.
Full on screwed. Enjoy.

 

So what happens in 2034? We have enough money to cover 75% of existing obligations with no changes.

Raise the payroll cap and we have enough to cover Social Security forever

 

Those Bonds are Treasury Bills. Know what those are?

 

The same people who didn't have money to pay their own bills and appropriated your funds, owe you the money in the future, despite not having the money to fund themselves today. Think about that.

 

What makes a Ponzi scheme a Ponzi scheme is that it’s a giant fraud. People think they’re investing in postal stamps. Their money is actually being invested in nothing. In Social Security, conversely, it’s perfectly clear what is going on. Every year, Social Security’s actuaries release an insanely detailed report on the system’s finances, its balance of payments, the potential problems it could face, and so on. You can read their report here. In a Ponzi scheme, the finances are a secret, and that’s central to the enterprise. In Social Security, they are, as a matter of law, public.


Carlos Curbelo
U.S. Representative candidate


Social Security and Medicare are "a Ponzi scheme."

 

If social security is a Ponzi scheme then so is health insurance because you pay in today for people who get sick today. A ponzi scheme relies on an investment that doesn't have the money to actually pay back the investors and relies on more and more people joining and more and more demand for it until eventually the demand stops increasing and suddenly people can't get paid and it all falls apart. Social security is backed up by taxes and as long as taxes can cover retirement it works. If not, we cut the benefits, raise the age limit, or raise taxes. Its just another social program not a ponzi scheme.

 

The funds are appropriated and spent by a government that can already not pay it's obligations. In return that fund is filled with promises of that same government to pay at some point in the future.

All SS monies are spent in the same place as the general fund. Borrowing from yourself is a shell game.

 

I reckon since it is called a "tax" they figure they are "entitled" to spend it anyway they choose.

 

Once any government benefit is passed, in the minds of politicians, it becomes an entitlement!

 

Listen to these Republicans who can't WAIT to destroy Social Security.

How can ANYONE vote for a party like that?