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Outside first DOGE caucus meeting, Republican says ‘there will be some cuts’ to Social Security
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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How does it fund itself? What's the income? Just Social Security Tax?
Yes, it's a payroll tax. Your paycheck may show how much you are paying into Social Security. This is money meant to help you and others after retirement. Musk wants to take that money and instead use it to fill unrelated gaps in the federal budget, gaps caused by Trump's tax cuts for the very wealthy.
Holy shit I never realized it until you explained it like this. Thank you, and also we are fucked.
This is one of the rare cases where I want to laugh at the silly US, but can't because our "scial security" (we call it "retirement savings") is being missapropriated for general funds as well :(
I just this year set up regular investment (part of my paycheck) into various funds to save for retirement privately.
Social Security got the structure it has after the Great Depression wiped... well, you know. Everyone. Out.
I'm sure your private equity will be run much more responsibly throughout your life though, no need for some big ol' stupid government to guarantee your retirement or anything. Carry on!
I still have the government guaranteed pension as well, not as if I could opt out even if I wanted to, which I don't.
The concept of the day: Diversification!
Social Security is more than just retirement.
We are only fucked if we let it happen.
ffs
Social Security fund invested in government bonds, so the interest from that goes into the fund.
To be fair the budget deficit was there before Trump. His campaign promises are going to increase it, but they can offset that partially with spending cuts. Also, the government has been using money from the Social Security fund routinely, again nothing new under Trump. They just count it as an internal debt. According to Wikipedia, by 2022 it's been already about 20% of the fund "borrowed" by the government.
Another thing about the tax is that there is a cap on the amount you pay into it https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/what-is-the-social-security-tax-limit. Meaning it's a regressive tax where lower income people pay more than wealthy people (not to mention that many wealthy people may not have traditional income and pay no taxes for this).
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10024.pdf
It doesn't fund itself, but it's a completely separate fund [bucket of money] than the rest of the government budget, with a specific tax that goes directly to it and nothing else.