re: #18 mikiesmoky2

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.

This is not a matter of faith. Despite your apparently unshakable belief to the contrary, the 2011 federal budget includes $791.681 billion for Social Security. It’s right there on page 141 of the Budget of the U.S. Government.

Do you think the words “Budget of the U.S. Government” mean something else? Do you think Social Security is included as a joke? Do you think that the budget only includes the parts that Congress approves each year?

Regardless of what’s probably semantical nonsense, the $1.65 trillion deficit is calculated by subtracting the total outlays including Social Security from the total revenues. If you don’t include Social Security it’s only $1.5 trillion.