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Showing Original Post only (View all)Paul Krugman Tells GOP Senator: ‘Your Facts Are False’ On Social Security [View all]
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/10/1696671/johnson-social-security/Paul Krugman Tells GOP Senator: Your Facts Are False On Social Security
By Adam Peck on Mar 10, 2013 at 11:51 am
During a contentious panel on ABCs This Week on Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) found himself at odds with his fellow panelists and with the facts about Social Securitys solvency.
Johnson and fellow panelist Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) had been discussing the long-term solvency of Social Security when Johnson made the claim that the Social Security Trust Fund was a myth, and that the revenue generated from the sale of securities to the federal government somehow should not count in calculating the programs fiscal health.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman jumped in to point out that Johnson was unwilling to accept even the most basic facts over the way Social Security is funded, all for the sake of a talking point:
KRUGMAN: You said lets start with the facts, but weve just run aground right there.
JOHNSON: Exactly my point, we have got to agree on the facts and figures.
KRUGMAN: But your facts are false Social Security has a dedicated revenue base, it has a trust fund based on that dedicated revenue base. You cant change the rules mid stream and say oh, suddenly the trust fund doesnt count. [...] Its important to realize that the facts that are being brought out here are in fact non-facts.
JOHNSON: Exactly my point, we have got to agree on the facts and figures.
KRUGMAN: But your facts are false Social Security has a dedicated revenue base, it has a trust fund based on that dedicated revenue base. You cant change the rules mid stream and say oh, suddenly the trust fund doesnt count. [...] Its important to realize that the facts that are being brought out here are in fact non-facts.
Watch it @ link~
The Social Security trust fund is solvent through 2038, and the program would almost certainly have long-term solvency were it not for the Republican-backed cap on payroll taxes for income above a certain level.
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Paul Krugman Tells GOP Senator: ‘Your Facts Are False’ On Social Security [View all]
babylonsister
Mar 2013
OP
Wall street did not steal the trust fund money. How would they do that?
Warren Stupidity
Mar 2013
#5
Nope. This huckster/defender of parasites is legion (see what I did there?)
Egalitarian Thug
Mar 2013
#61
Well they cut back on paying that DEBT, as soon as they are willing to cut back on TBill Debt!!
on point
Mar 2013
#35
Johnson got his lying ass handed to him several times on This Week this morning.
Gidney N Cloyd
Mar 2013
#6
I don't see much difference between DWS and the typical non-teaparty GOP'er. nt
NorthCarolina
Mar 2013
#76
answer: we're not. capping SS taxes doesn't subsidize wall street when benefits are also
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#83
Let's not forget the Federal Reserve's role in helping steal middle class assets.
AdHocSolver
Mar 2013
#49
There are many ways to solve it...screaming "don't touch my social security" is not one of them.
dkf
Mar 2013
#11
It would be good to do that only if workers are making more. So raise the minimum wage first
CTyankee
Mar 2013
#23
Honestly do you see the numbers I posted are from the social security administration?
dkf
Mar 2013
#69
Yes, many ways to solve it, but all of them depend on first solving the political problem.
eomer
Mar 2013
#45
The ONLY "problem" with SS is with the politicians who want to destroy it to benefit
duffyduff
Mar 2013
#56
no. it will just give the feds more money to 'borrow' for the next 20 years, at which time we'll
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#84
Rising productivity generally means less labor employed, it's not really a good thing.
xtraxritical
Mar 2013
#27
It's not a question of rising productivity being good (which it generally is)...
YoungDemCA
Mar 2013
#63
historically, it means more labor employed at a wider variety of things and rising incomes, both
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#85
It's never enough for this class that dramatically overestimates its size and influence,
Egalitarian Thug
Mar 2013
#78
GOP pols, pundits, and other talking heads are expert at disseminating outright lies, distortions,
indepat
Mar 2013
#17
You are very right, our founding fathers unanimously disdaned the corporate entity concept.
xtraxritical
Mar 2013
#29
And Social Security would be in much better shape IF THE MIDDLE CLASS HADN'T BEEN
wiggs
Mar 2013
#24
Republicans are basically trying to argue that U.S. bonds are "worthless"
Jeff In Milwaukee
Mar 2013
#41
Third-Way, I'd laugh if not for the fact that there are so many morons pushing this idiocy here,
Egalitarian Thug
Mar 2013
#64
It's such a simple and painless solution, remove the cap. My husband earns above the cap, and I
spicegal
Mar 2013
#74
They did the only thing they could do under the laws governing Social Security. Which in this
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#88
"Republican-backed cap on payroll taxes for income above a certain level" = baloney. The cap
HiPointDem
Mar 2013
#81