Tuesday, April 05, 2005

The President's (Filing) Cabinet

The President has taken a gander at the Social Security Trust Fund and doesn't like what he sees.

"There is no trust 'fund' -- just IOUs that I saw firsthand," the President says.

The trust fund is the money invested in US Treasury bonds. "IOUs" don't really exist, but the government prints up copies of bonds to put in binders stored in a single, four-drawer file cabinet.

There's about $1.7 trillion invested in the bonds right now.

The President wants to privatize a portion of the withholding taken out of your check. But he has not proposed any plans to deal with the expected shortfall. That happens in 2041, when all those bonds are used up -- paying out more than is taken in. (USAToday)

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