Third Way propaganda? Help me with this post showing SS as a greater expenditure than defense.

[CrossChris]

http://www.thirdway.org/taxreceipt

Some of my friends are posting this on facebook. It shows how your federal tax dollars are allocated, by percentage. I know Third Way has put out things like this before--does anyone know offhand how they are arriving at these figures?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. It's probably from the new 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt Calculator.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxreceipt?utm_source=email108&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=taxreceipt

Plug in what you paid and it will break it down for you.

[AngryAmish]

2. That is about right

[gratuitous]

3. The major difference is that Social Security outlays are already paid for

Defense is paid for by borrowing heavily from our good friends the Communist Chinese. And, while social security dollars are spread throughout the population and spent locally for staples, multiplying their effect throughout the national economy, defense dollars are spent on a lucky few contractors, who hoard the money or send it around the world looking for a return of an extra tenth of a percent.

[mmonk]

4. Social Security is not a budget expense. It is only listed as such

by its enemies who want to hide the mic costs, raid the fund, and keep billionaires from paying the interest on the bonds through taxation.

[Poll_Blind]

5. +1,000,000

PB

[CrossChris]

6. It is listed on the site as a recipient of fed tax dollars. Is there a link showing this as false?

I'm having a hard time convincing this person that the site is misleading. Some links could help. Thanks so much for weighing in.

[mmonk]

10. Here are the major myths.

Also, social security is not a federal budget item. It isn't included in the budget due to it having it's own funding mechanism (payroll taxes) which purchases treasuries and has it's own account.

http://pol.moveon.org/ssmyths/

[CrossChris]

17. Thanks so much! n/t

[yawnmaster]

12. go to the site sinkingfeeling gave you above and compare...

The link is to the White House site and gives you similar information.
plug the same numbers into both and see what you get.
The WH version does separate SS and MC.

Here it is again...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxreceipt?utm_source=email108&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=taxreceipt

[mmonk]

13. From time to time, presidents have presented a "unified budget"

with it included, but Social Security is off budget typically.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/BudgetTreatment.html

[democracy1st]

16. SS.gov link!

http://www.ssa.gov/

[spanone]

7. so, when do i stop paying into social security? it's funded. period.

[JDPriestly]

8. What percentage of the revenue comes from FICA taxes?

What percentage of the costs of today's Social Security benefits are paid out of money that we older folks put in under Reagan's scheme to charge higher FICA taxes for baby boomers in order to set aside money for their retirement?

How easily would the entire Social Security expenditure be covered if we extended the FICA tax to all income including the income that Wall Street brokers receive (and maybe lowered the FICA tax rate in the process)?

[Igel]

9. How much of today's SS expense are paid out of reserves?

Pretty much none of it.

It was never intended to be a piggy bank. It was intended to have those paying into it fund those receiving out of it.

It was only in the '80s when it was foreseen that there'd be a huge increase in expenses with no corresponding easy increase in revenues that the idea of collecting and setting aside significant excess revenues. A lot of people collect far more than they ever put into it, even assuming that it earns interest at the going rate.

In the future it'll be necessary to cash in some of the special-issue treasury notes and have them repaid out of the general fund. That'll be fun: FICA taxes will be significantly less than what's needed, and the money to repay the loans will have go come from the general income tax revenue stream or be converted into debt held by the public and overseas governments/agents.

[JDPriestly]

14. I'm retire. Let me tell you about the reality of retirement.

Even if you are fortunate enough to save money while you are working, you cannot survive on it once you are retired unless you have saved at least a million. Salaries and wages and current interest rates and returns on investments are so low that your money is losing value when compared to inflation, not gaining it.

So, Social Security is an absolute necessity for most people over 65. Our country will either have to start killing older people or provide for them. This is, as a congressman pointed out, especially true for the fairly high percentage of older people who have various forms of dementia or serious physical deterioration.

We need to stop investing in the military and start investing in things like clean alternative energy -- namely solar and wind -- so that as baby boomers retire, we can at least afford to keep all of us warm and fed.

How do you propose providing for the final years of the baby boomers without Social Security? without Medicare?

Jobs? There aren't enough jobs for our kids, much less for us. And very few of us can still do heavy lifting. Any way you look at it, this burden will fall on the younger generations.

If you end Social Security and Medicare, the children of the elderly will have to either pay for their parents board, room and medical costs or let them die. That is the choice that faces the country. It is time to adequately fund Medicare and Social Security.

We need to stop importing junk from China, exporting jobs to the rest of the world and start caring about our own society.

[white_wolf]

11. Why do we allow these Third Way DLC types in the party anyway?

All they do is weaken the liberal wing of the party and turn us into nice republicans.

[mmonk]

15. We didn't. They made themselves leaders of the party.

Many voting Democrats are completely unaware and confused.