GOP presidents have approved more of our National debt than have Democrat presidents, but don't let facts get in your way!
It is simply amazing there are some who are not aware that SS has not added one dime to our national debt. Clearly, we are not spending enough on education in this country.
Both of these statements are very misleading.
If you don't read anything else in this post, please look at the last link included.
The President doesn't control the spending. Yes, he's supposed to put forth the budget, but Bill Clinton was the only President who had a line item veto for awhile. Meaning, if Congress wants to do something strongly enough, the President can't stop it. He sure can't hold up the budget because then everybody screams "fire" ("government shut down").
Republicans controlled the House and Senate from 1995 to 2000.
1996 Debt Increased by 6.71%
1997 Debt Increased by 3.37%
1998 Debt Increased by 2.03%
1999 Debt Increased by 2.88%
2000 Debt
Decreased by 1.97% (a product of the "Contract with America" led by Newt Gingrich in preceding years)
in 2001 and 2002 the House and Senate were split and the debt grew by an average of 6.37% (9/11) and to a height of a 9.25% increase by 2003 when Republicans (not particularly conservative Republicans) regained a slight majority. Then the increase decreased (politician speak) gradually each year (9.25%, 8.55%, 7.56%, 6.24%) to 6.24% in 2006. The Democrats gained control of both House and Senate in 2007 (elected end of 2006) and in 2008 the increase in debt jumped from 6.32% in 2007 to 15.93% in 2008 another 15.06% in 2009 and another 13.92% in 2010. About a 52% increase in debt in just 3 years -wow!
Social Security, primarily, pays people from what new people put into the system (not from what people put in themselves). When it runs short, it's backed by the Treasury. When the Treasury runs short, Congress raises the debt ceiling. If, eventually, Congress doesn't balance the budget and can't borrow more money, Social Security, at some point,
will default.
For example, the fund was nearly depleted in 1982. No beneficiary was shortchanged because the Congress enacted temporary emergency legislation that permitted borrowing from other Federal trust funds. The borrowed amounts were repaid with interest within 4 years.
In 1996 the Treasury Dept. announced it did not have enough money to pay Social Security benefits for the month of March because it could not issue new debt. However, Congress passed a law allowing the department to temporarily issue securities in an amount equal to those payments, in such a way that would not count against the debt ceiling in the short-term. The benefits were paid and Congress subsequently raised the debt ceiling from $4.9 trillion to $5.5 trillion. The payments are not protected if Treasury does not have the money to pay them.
On paper, it looks pretty stable right now:
Social Security Online - HISTORY -- the worry is the increasing population in retirees compared to those putting money into the system -- starting about 2020:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/96xx/doc9649/08-20-SocialSecurityUpdate.pdf (BAD NEWS!)
