re: #140 engineer dog

by the way, lostlakehiker, i had been meaning to get back to you on the subject of the fictitious figure of $106 trillion in unfunded liabilities for social security:

So, what does the 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report actually say? Well, it says the unfunded liability is only $5.3 trillion:

Trustees Report: “For the 75-year projection period, the actuarial deficit is 2.00 percent of taxable payroll, 0.30 percentage point larger than in last year’s report. The open group unfunded obligation for OASDI over the 75-year period is $5.3 trillion in present value, and is $0.9 trillion more than the measured level of a year ago.”

[Link: www.facebook.com…]

[Link: www.ssa.gov…]

it should be noted that while people who cite the figure of $106 trillion never seem to give a time frame for these supposed liabilities, please note that in point of fact we are usually dealing with a 75 year time frame, not costs that are due right now

if the trustees of social security and medicare were really lying about the amount of the ‘unfunded liabities’ and the reality of the existence of the trust fund itself (you can read a description of it in the trustees report linked), it would be one of the biggest scandals in american history

since i haven’t heard about any such scandal in the news, i continue to believe in what the trustees report as the best information available

There is a trust fund?