Government Lies?

[Richard Fiero]

Tyrone Slothrop wrote:
>Do we really have a budget surplus? In the general
>fund the US we collected $1,364 and spent $1,392. A
>deficit of $28. For Social Secruity we collected $239
>more than we returned to the people. This created a
>"surplus" of $212.
>
>All money listed is in billions of dollars.
>
>But the money is Social Secruity is not the
>government's money. It has to be paid back. Can we
>really call this a surplus?
. . .

Social Security is pay-as-you-go.
Your contribution and mine are used to pay current liabilities, not
future. It is indeed the "Government's" money just as the liabilities
are public liabilities.
There is no "trust fund". That is just an accounting entry just as the
interest accruing to the trust fund is just an accounting entry. If the
guvmint actually buried the Social Security income under a mattress,
why the guvmint would just have to print more money to make up for the
missing money.
Social Security money is -never- paid back. It pays the current bill.
Yo, dude. Money in the aggregate has no cost. It's just paper. Comes
from trees. Grows out of the ground. Etc. It's like bus tokens.
Consider the guvmint to be a bus company that is charged with providing
transportation. It issues tokens. If it attempts to collect a surplus
of tokens, it's out of business.