Reply #44: I've read every SS report dating back to the 90s.

[Hannah Bell]

The dates for SS's impending bankruptcy have been pushed forward nearly every year until the current downturn. The mid-range forecasts

SS is currently collecting a surplus. Thus there's no reason to raise the cap, or raise SS taxes in order to collect *more* excess money that will have to be repaid (or not) from the general budget "later".

This is a tax on workers, & it benefits capital.

In 1983 Reagan & Greenspan "saved" Social Security by increasing the taxation rate over the rate required to fund then-current retirees & fund the mandatory 1-year cushion. This is what created the huge TF surplus.

The surplus money was then borrowed into the general fund, as mandated by the original SS legislation. At the same time, income tax cuts which benefited primarily the rich & corporations were enacted, & those have stayed more or less intact ever since.

Rescinding Bush's income tax cuts on the top 5% would pay off the entire TF debt in less than ten years.

This debt should be paid before *any* more money is borrowed from working people.

There's 2.4 trillion in the TF currently. Projected exhaustion date = 2037, by which time the majority of boomers will be in their graves.

$805 billion collected in 2008, $625 billion paid out, = nearly 200 billion in excess funds collected in 2008 from SS taxation & interest payments.

It's specious *bullshit* to pretend increasing SS taxation *now* is rational.