re: #17 MinisterO

At this point it should be abundantly clear to all but the dullest dullards that Social Security is included in the federal budget.

MinisterO, I, sincerely, appreciate your offerings enabling our dialogue and I believe that we will arrive at the correct and agreed answer.

Either one understands that the SS trust fund is separate from the federal budget or he or she does not.
Only the “administration” (approximately $12 billion) of the fund is included in the federal budget.

The SS trust fund does not have a “budget”. It has an “accounting”.

The “equity” of the SS trust fund grew by about $80 billion from 09/30/09 to 09/30/10 to $2.53959 trillion.

$2.586333 trillion of treasuries, yielding between 2 7/8 and 7% were on hand @ 09/30/10.

The SS trust fund financials can be viewed @ this hyperlink:

NOTE: My bad. The SSA fund’s fiscal period ends September 30, not June 30.

mz