The mouthpiece for the rich, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, has a web site that says this:
Social Security provides vital income security to millions of beneficiaries but is on a road toward insolvency.
The Social Security program currently pays more in benefits than it collects in revenue, and under the latest official projections, its trust funds will run out in 2035.
At that point, all beneficiaries regardless of age and income will face an immediate 20 percent benefit cut.
CRFB’s “The Reformer” allows users to choose from a number of options to modify Social Security tax and benefit levels in order to close the program’s 75-year shortfall and keep it sustainable for future generations.
See how your choices stack up!
The truth: The federal government cannot become insolvent. SS is a federal agency. Like the government, SS can’t become insolvent unless Congress and the President want it to.
The so-called SS “trust funds” are not real trust funds. They are line items on balance sheets that the federal government can control at will. They can increase or decrease the balances just by pressing computer keys.
The non-issue of sustainability is to make you believe you have to give up benefits so that by comparison, the rich get richer.
Then, the CRFB gives you a little online game that shows you how much to cut your benefits so that the federal government won’t run out of dollars.
Of course, it’s all a lie. As you (and they, surely) know, our Monetarily Sovereign government, the creator of the dollar, cannot run out of the dollars it freely creates every minute of every day.
Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
But the CRFB doesn’t provide that information. Instead, it provides the following choices, which ask you how much less you would like to receive from Social Security:
Increase (+) / Reduce (-) Initial Benefits
Slow Benefit Growth for Top 70% of Earners
Slow Benefit Growth for Top Half of Earners
Slow Benefit Growth for Top 20% Of Earners
Increase Retirement Age
Raise Age from 67 to 68
Index Age to Longevity After it Reaches 67
Raise Age to 69 then index to Longevity
Modify Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs)
Index COLAs to “Chained CPI”
Index COLAs to “Chained CPI” and Means-Test Them
Index COLAs to “CPI-E”
Then, the CRFB asks how much more you would like to pay to our poor, destitute federal government:
Increase Taxable Maximum
Subject All Wages to Payroll Tax
Subject 90% of Wages to Payroll Tax
Tax All Wages Above $400,000
Cover Newly-Hired State & Local Workers
Apply the Payroll Tax to “Cafeteria Plans”
Increase Taxation of Benefits
Invest in the Stock Market
Diversify the Trust Fund to Increase Returns
Divert 2% of Payroll Tax to “Carve-Out” Accounts
Allow Contributions into “Add-on” Accounts
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
……………………………………………………………………..
The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
CRFB = Committee for Recycled Financial Bullshit
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Wonder how they’d respond to this: http://dlthornton.com/images/services/The%20M2%20Inflation%20Myth.pdf
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They would ignore it. Their mission is to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest by reducing federal spending on benefits to the rest. Facts be damned. Their solutions always involve tax increases on the not-rich and reduced Social Security, Medicare, and other aids to the middle and lower income classes.
You won’t see many suggestions for tax increases on the rich or the elimination of tax loopholes used by the rich.
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https://mythfighter.com/2022/11/19/does-federal-deficit-spending-cause-inflation-the-absolute-proof/
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Mr. Mitchell, may I just say that your unrelenting busting of the dreaded CRFB gives me (and many others) life. Thank you.
That’s all.
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Robin, I wish I could tell you that the CRFB are the only ones spreading the Big Lie. It also is disseminated by virtually all politicians, most media, and all-too-many economists.
Solving the problem will require enough people like you to contact your federal politicians. — Senators and Representatives — and tell them you know the federal government cannot run short of dollars, so cut out the lying.
By the way, when the liars try to justify their lies, they claim government spending is “socialism.” It isn’t.
Socialism is government ownership and control. But we are talking about financial support, not ownership. Just thought I’d mention it.
Note to all: Contact your Senator and Representative. Tell him or her that you are fully aware that the federal government can support anything, without collecting a dime in taxes. So they should support your needs and not pretend the federal government is going insolvent.
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I heard that.
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I do not believe that at all. since being on SS I have watch everything I spend and hope I have enough to buy a tank of gas of food while supporting a special needs child. . When my husband passed I was told by SS administration office here in Yakima to keep my mouth shut when i tried to get the burial fund. When I paid my house off if you can call it a house I have been told to sell it and they would help me with my needs on section 8 housing , while hispanics get a free ride I believe at mine and others funds. Since the lie of covid I stocked up by the check I received , but it does not keep up with the cost of utilities.and cost of buying things we need … Why are stores allowed to ripe up off and say things cost so much more. more taxes also Taxes on dish network for sports I will not watch. I have paid in since I was 16 and have been given just enough at taken or charged for health insurance that wont pay for my medical my doctors have said to get done. 5 years and I have not seen a doctor out of pocket I can not afford. so I do not have faith in SS at all.
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Janet, you have my sincere sympathy.
Unfortunately, very few people understand how federal finances really work. Here are the facts being hidden from you:
1. The federal government has infinite dollars. It easily could provide you with a generous Social Security benefit, a generous Medicare benefit, plus housing, education, food, transportation aid, and other forms of aid.
Sadly, the rich among us have convinced the populace that federal financing is like personal financing, and so the government is running short of money. It is a lie.
2. Your taxes, income tax, payroll tax, and FICA tax pay for nothing. Those tax dollars are destroyed upon receipt. The federal government pays all its obligations the same way: It creates new dollars as needed.
3. There is no financial reason why you are being forced to scrimp and suffer. The federal government has all the resources it needs in order to make your life easier. Americans have been sold a false narrative, by people who don’t care about you.
The federal government cannot run short of dollars. If ever a politician begins to tell the truth about federal finances, that’s the one to vote for. I hope I live long enough to see it.
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Who is the CRFB? Do they have legal power to limit our money? Or are they just another minority group pretending to help, pounding their chests, but only hurting everyone but themselves?
Look at what’s happening with anti-abortion. Those people could care less about real Individuals. They are misinformed about the real difference between life and human life, so they cause trouble. The majority of Americans want Choice just like going shopping. The “people” once again are marching on the Supreme Court, not that it’ll do much good.
My point is, we have minorities telling the majority what’s right. We have politicians telling the people what’s right instead of people telling the politicians what’s right, i.e, gerrymandering/redistricting to give minority Republicans power as if they’re the majority.
This whole scenario is what may lead to minority control, the end of Democracy and the American experiment. But there’s one condition that’s far more destructive in the near term, yet strangely may save us- and the whole world- over the long term: The world’s ever worsening weather. The toll from damage will be so great, plus all our other needs the CRFB forgets, will force the federal budget into a new legal “reality.” The profession we’ve come to despise may turn out to be our solution. With our lives on the line, we’ll finally Snap Out Of It. Money can be made legally plentiful just as it has been made legally scarce. After the dust settles, likely well before CRFB’s 2035, super bad weather may turn out to be super good. Call it what you want – God, Nature, Universe- we’re not running the show and, if necessary, a hellava spanking may be needed to get it right.
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Everything comes from minorities. Einstein was a minority of one, and look what he accomplished. Trump and others were elected by a minority, which was composed of minorities.
The Supreme Court is a minority of nine, and God save us from those villains.
The people don’t tell politicians anything, because there is no group known as the “people.” If there were, it would be the least intelligent group, falling just below bacteria.
I have an intelligent friend who votes Republican because her father always did. And she is one of the clever people. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gossar, Donald Trump, all the election denier, anti-vaxing, anti-“woke,” pols receive votes from “the people.”
Why do you think the pols tell such outrageous lies? Because they know the people will believe.
Everyday, I receive angry messages about Social Security for All, Medicare for All, etc. Why would someone be angry at a person explaining how these things could be free? Because the majority is stupid. Every good thing has come from minorities, often minorities of one or two. Majority rule can be a nightmare.
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…and behind it all is the primary/secondary educational system giving it’s stamp of approval to the status quo and rejecting the hard truths.
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Here is some typical Libertarian BS, claiming taxes must be increased to fund SS & Medicare. Hey Libertarians, do taxes need to be increased to fund the other thousand federal agencies?
https://reason.com/2023/01/23/donald-trump-and-j-d-vance-say-no-cuts-for-social-security-thats-impossible/?utm_medium=email
What about funding the Supreme Court? Congress? The White House? The Military? Somehow, they all get funded w/o tax increases.
When will the public catch on to America’s biggest con job?
FEDERAL TAXES ARE NOT LIKE LOCAL TAXES. FEDERAL TAXES DO NOT FUND FEDERAL SPENDING.
Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Alan Greenspan: “There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.”
Alan Greenspan: “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.”
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
Quote from former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when he was on 60 Minutes:
Scott Pelley: Is that tax money that the Fed is spending?
Ben Bernanke: It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.
Statement from the St. Louis Fed:
“As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills. In this sense, the government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational.”
COULD IT BE ANY PLAINER?
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Well-said.
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