Forum Post: Social Security
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 16, 2011, 7:51 a.m. EST by bill1102inf2
(357)
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For people paying into SS it is a TAX
For people collecting it, it is retirement benefit or disability benefit.
The money is not stored in a lockbox or savings account, it is a slush fund for the federal government. The payouts come directly from the pay in's , the money taxed right now is not saved, it is spent.
An entitlement is something GUARANTEED by the government, in that respect almost NOTHING is considered an entitlement. I prefer a looser definition in which if you qualify for something, you are therefore entitled to it, whether its SS, Medicare, VA benefits, etc etc. The word 'entitlement' is not a bad word.
$706 Billion was payed out in 2010 via SS
Let's just be clear, SS isn't insurance.
"SSDI" stand for Social Security Disability Insurance
Indeed it does, but the FDR administration argued that SS wasn't insurance before the Supreme Court. That's why they found it constitutional:
Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619 (1937), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that Social Security was not a contributory insurance program. The Court defended the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935, requiring only that welfare spending be for the common benefit as distinguished from some mere local purpose. It affirmed a District Court decree that held that the tax upon employees was not properly at issue, and that the tax upon employers was constitutional. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvering_v._Davis
Yes, thank you, ard for anyone reading this 'INSURANCE' in 1937 had quite a different meaning that it does now.
Do tell.