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Obama To Gut SSI
America’s Campaigner-in-Chief, Obama, thinks that gutting Social Security is a good thing but wants to push the GOP into being the ones that do it. Or, at least, that’s what he was jabbering in New Hampshire as part of his ever-rolling 2012 reelection campaign.
Specifically, he demanded that the payroll tax-cuts he got through Congress earlier this year be extended past their agreed upon duration.
Hell, the boy even demanded that they be increased even further – all at the cost of Social Security which gets its funding from those payroll taxes.
During a speech Tuesday at a Manchester high school, the president was to argue that a failure to extend the tax breaks would hurt middle-class families already struggling amid a shaky economy, effectively daring congressional Republicans to block a measure and thus increase taxes.
“If we don’t act, taxes will go up for every single American, starting next year. And I’m not about to let that happen,” Obama said Monday, previewing the message he was expected to deliver.
The expiring payroll tax cuts came at a total cost of approximately $120 billion and not only does Obama want to increase that drain on Social Security’s already bleeding coffers, he wants to further cut the payroll tax by another 1% for workers, at a total cost of $179 billion, and cut the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
Given the ages and other demographics of the TEA Party, I’m sure that gutting Social Security to buy votes was an easy choice for Obama to make. It might even be punitive action.
The estimated to loss to Social Security from Obama’s transparent attempt to buy votes in 2012 would be $368 billion. This is a loss that it is doubtful that SSI can absorb.
Social Security expenditures exceeded the program’s non-interest income in 2010 for the first time since 1983. The $49 billion deficit last year (excluding interest income) and $46 billion projected deficit in 2011 are in large part due to the weakened economy and to downward income adjustments that correct for excess payroll tax revenue credited to the trust funds in earlier years. This deficit is expected to shrink to about $20 billion for years 2012-2014 as the economy strengthens. After 2014, cash deficits are expected to grow rapidly as the number of beneficiaries continues to grow at a substantially faster rate than the number of covered workers.
There’s little or no doubt that Social Security is doomed. It was never designed to deal with America’s growing population and it’s trust fund was stolen by the federal government for their own uses decades ago. That doesn’t in any way make it right for Obama to try to gut it and to maneuver others into taking the blame for doing so.
If the boy wants to finally write off Social Security as a loss, fine. Let him own up to that and take responsibility for this one single thing during his misbegotten life and tenure as POTUS.
Tags: 2012 Elections | Ageism | Aging | America | Debt | Deficit | Economy | New Hampshire | Obama | Politics | Social Security
