One of the points the Republicans have made in their effort to "reform" Social Security is that the trillion dollars collected above the needs for the program no longer exists.
"There is no cash in the Social Security trust fund, and there never has been any," a paper from the Heritage Foundation claims. Many conservatives go on to claim that in 2018 the Social Security system will no longer be able to cover its bills and will have to use the bonds in the trust fund. However, the government will have to raise taxes to cover those special government bonds issued to the Social Security system, causing great fiscal harm.
But as economist Paul Krugman says. "the only way Social Security gets in trouble is if Congress votes not to honor U.S. government bonds held by Social Security. That's not going to happen. So legally, mechanically, 2018 has no meaning."
Excess Social Security funds helped cover the Reagan and Bush deficits and if the government hadn't been able to take the excess money from the Social Security fund then they would have had to borrow it from other sources and, whether in 2018 or some other time, the government would have had to raise taxes to pay for that borrowing.
But conservatives like to claim there's no money there. If so, doesn't that mean that the government basically took money it wasn't entitled to? Isn't that stealing? And if that's stealing, shouldn't it be stopped today?
Oh, but then the Bush Administration would actually have to admit what Fiscal Failures they have been and it's doubtful they would want to do that. No, the Bush Adminstration will keep taking the extra money but have it's minions claim it's disappearing. That's dishonest or unethical, but then those are words the Bush Administration lives by.
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