Reply #3: yep - you pretty much got it right. [View All]

[rurallib]

Money tagged for medicare and SS has for years (since Nixon I think) been thrown in to a large pile along with general revenue. Therefore Repugs claim that Medicare and SS are part of the general fund. Not true. This was the genesis of Al Gore's "lock box" comments in the 200 election.
Another non-truth that the right pushes is the whole $14.5T debt. Much of that is owed to citizens in the form of bonds owned by citizens and much of SS is in Tbills (~$5T). So the debt is not exactly what it is purported to be. It is money we owe to us.