Did Congress Just Vote To Take Money From Social Security

A decades-old myth has mushroomed into a full-blown conspiracy.

WASHINGTON--

QUESTION:

Did Congress take money from Social Security?

Answer:

No, only the myth continues to circulate.

SOURCES:

Social Security Administration

Alex Lawson- Executive Director- Social Security Works

Pamela Tainter-Causey- Director of Communications- National Committee to Preserve Social Security & medicare

Dean Baker- Senior Economist- Center for Economic and Policy Research

PROCESS:

Viewer Tim McDonald who'south getting gear up to retire reached out the team most social security.

"I seem to recall Congress taking money from the funds of Social Security back in the 70s and again after that. Can you lot Verify?" McDonald asked.

Turns out, McDonald is not the just one confused.

To become to the lesser, we started at the acme. The Social Security Administration (SSA) says the notion is a myth and misinformation.

"There has never been whatever change in the fashion the Social Security program is financed or the way that Social Security payroll taxes are used by the federal regime," the bureau said. "The Social Security Trust Fund was created in 1939 ...the Trust Fund has ever worked the same way The Social Security Trust Fund has never been "put into the full general fund of the government."

Our Verify researchers cantankerous-checked with three social security experts who independently back that up.

"That's a myth," Alex Lawson, executive managing director at Social Security Works, said. "By police, the funds that are contributed to Social Security can only be used for benefits and to administer the plan."

For every dollar you pay into Social Security, one cent or less goes towards running the program, Lawson explained.

Here'due south what the SSA says they remember caused the conspiracy to mushroom.

Social Security sometimes collects more money than what is paid out.

Between 1937-2009 the Social Security Assistants (SSA) received $13.8 trillion in income, but expended $eleven.3 trillion in benefits, according to the bureau.

However, for the past xi years, the retirement programme has taken in enough FICA taxes to pay current year benefits and that's where the Trust Fund, comes into play.

Every twelvemonth, excess money is held in the "Social Security Trust Fund" which get invested into Treasury bonds and securities that brand a lot of interest.

In the FY2018 those investments racked up $3 billion lonely, adding to a total of $2.895 trillion currently in the fund.

So whatever money taken in from Social Security isn't being divvied upwards amongst Congress, that money is being invested in the most secure way--with U.S. bonds.

"No, [Congress] did non have any funds from SS," Dean Bakery, senior economist at Center for Economic and Policy Research, said. "SS funds are credited to its trust fund. Unless Congress changes the police (it hasn't), whatever coin defended to the trust fund is in the trust fund.

Now there are ii rationales experts say may be causing the confusion.

The Trust Fund used to be included in the authorities's "unified budget" but that changed in 1990.

When the Trust fund was taken "off-budget," pregnant that they were shown as a separate account.

But the coin didn't disappear, it was just called something else."

The Trust Fund used to be included in the authorities's "unified upkeep," but that changed in 1990, when the Trust fund was taken "off-upkeep." This meant that the Fund was shown as a separate account in the federal budget.

But the money didn't disappear, information technology was just chosen something else.

Another reason the myth seems to bubble upward on social media: people are reading manufactures that suggest Social Security is going 'bankrupt' or is 'depleted.'

The 2019 Social Security Trustee Report projects that past 2035, Social Security volition exist able to pay lxxx% of benefits. But that doesn't mean the program is bankrupt.

"There's literally no way that this system could go bankrupt, its primarily funded past our payroll tax by our contributions," Lawson said. "And so as long as those contributions are coming in, as long as people are working in America, Social Security has money to operate."

The "exhaustion date," as its called colloquially, is not a surprise. In fact, it was projected decades agone.

"There are bodily actuarial predictions that go back to World War II that accurately predict where nosotros are right now," Lawson said. " In very simple terms, the Babe Boomers basically pre-funded their retirement into the trust fund and at present they are drawing down on that to ensure that they tin can get the benefits that they've paid into. So, the only thing that can happen is that Congress can actually pass a police force to decrease peoples do good,due south and that'south why nosotros get into why we are hither today hearing about this over and over and over once again that Social Security is quote unquote going bankrupt or the moneys all been spent or not at that place; things like that are actually aimed at scaring the American people into believing that they will become zilch so that they will accept less than they're owed."

So we tin Verify, no Congress has not taken any coin from Social Security or the Trust Fund.

For a full list of the bonds held by the Trust Fund, click here.

Source: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify-no-congress-didnt-borrow-money-from-social-security/65-512d8e19-ccc6-4c36-8574-bcc7a95a30f0

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