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Goose
@Goose
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thread 1/12
I got some pushback the other day when I called this meme misinformation, and I wanted to explain a bit about why I think that and why it matters. I want to start, though, by explaining a bit about how social security is funded, because there are a lot of myths out there.
Social Security Fun Facts • Social Security and Medicare are paid for with a separate tax. They add nothing to the national debt. • Social Security has a $2.5 trillion surplus. • Congress has "borrowed" trillions from Social Security to pay for government spending. So when Republicans say we need to cut Social Security in order to balance the Federal Budget, here's what they really mean: "We've taken trillions from Social Security to pay for unfunded wars, tax cuts for the rich and corporate subsidies. We need to cut your benefits so we don’t have to pay it back.”
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 2/12
Payroll and self-employment taxes provide nearly all of SocSec’s funding. They only apply up to a fixed maximum income, so people earning really high wages pay a lower percentage of their income into the pot (i.e. it’s a regressive tax). The money goes into trust funds that are used to pay benefits.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 3/12
Most of the benefits paid in any given year are funded by the payroll taxes collected that year. But for a number of decades, Social Security paid out less than it collected, causing the SS trust fund to reach a balance as high as $2.9 trillion by 2020.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 4/12
But over time, the cost of benefits has gotten higher than the taxes collected. In 2021, the trust fund began paying out its reserves to cover that shortfall. That reserve will be gone by roughly 2034. After that, unless taxes are raised, yearly collections will only cover 80% of promised benefits.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 5/12
In the long term, the choices are: raise the taxes that fund social security (e.g. by some combination of lifting the cap on wages subject to tax or adding a new tax (e.g. a wealth tax or investment income tax) or cut benefits. The sooner we act, the more years we can spread the impact across.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 6/12
The meme points out that Social Security is separately funded and contributes nothing to the national debt. That is technically untrue, but I’m not bothered by it—the only reason it affects the debt is because the trust fund is invested in T-Bills that then need to be redeemed to pay out benefits.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 7/12
So, yes, the government has to borrow more to pay out cash to the trust fund, but when they do that, Social Security is like any other investor in T-bills. They don’t contribute to the national deficit any more than any investor would if it sold its T-bills. Silly stuff.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 8/12
The second statement is that the trust fund has a surplus of 2.5 trillion. This was probably true when the meme was new. It’s a bit misleading, though: calling it a “surplus” hides the fact that social security is draining that $2.5 billion quite quickly. So yes, there are reserves, but not forever.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 9/12
The third is that congress borrowed trillions from SocSec to pay for spending. While this is true, it is completely irrelevant. That past borrowing has nothing to do with Social Security’s path toward insolvency. It has to be paid back, and Congress can’t choose not to.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 10/12
The conclusion that republicans want to cut benefits to avoid paying back past loans is therefore wrong. What they’re worried about has nothing to do with the effects of past borrowing. Instead, they’re trying to cut benefits to prevent rich people from being taxed in the future.
07:52 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 11/12
The reason this matters is that the meme implies that Social Security would be doing just fine, if we just stopped borrowing from it. But it wouldn’t—it needs more than it collects, and will stop paying full benefits if we don’t act. Memes implying that it isn’t urgent are harmful.
07:53 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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thread 12/12
What we should be focusing on instead is building support for lifting the cap on payroll taxes, and imposing tax (earmarked for Social Security) on wealthy investors, and doing it soon, so the burden of paying it doesn’t fall disproportionately on the younger generations.
07:53 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Jeremy Robinson
@ShimokitaJer
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In response to Goose.
Clearly there are more nuanced ways to talk about all this, but calling it misinformation is also deceptive. It seems obvious to me that the image is intended to counter specific criticisms of Social Security from the right, specifically that it is insolvent and a drain on our national resources.
06:25 AM - Jan 22, 2024
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Jeremy Robinson
@ShimokitaJer
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In response to Jeremy Robinson.
Putting out more money than you are taking in is clearly a different situation when you have a substantial amount saved already, so emphasizing the size of the trust fund is a counter to GOP claims that SS is "broke."
06:27 AM - Jan 22, 2024
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Alfalpha Male ✔️
@fireblazes
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In response to Goose.
As I said, if the parts are considered separately the meme is correct. I think it is better labelled partially correct as opposed to misinformation.
08:07 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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Goose
@Goose
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In response to Alfalpha Male ✔️.
I think that if the parts were meant to be considered separately, they wouldn’t have been put into one meme. The meme was intended to mislead, which is why I call it misinformation. And I think the fact that it uses real facts to imply something untrue is not an improvement over just lying.
08:13 PM - Jan 21, 2024
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