The GOP's Paul Ryan Offers Another Fraudalent 'Fix' For the Budget: Either He Thinks You're Stupid — Or HE Is

Paul Ryan: The GOP's so-called  'policy wonk' is not that bright.
(Illustration by DonkeyHotey)

There should be a rule--or even a law--that politicians who propose "fixes" to Social Security should at least show they know something about the program. By that standard, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., would flunk.


By Michael Hiltzik
What's worse, his misunderstandings--heck, let's go ahead and call them misrepresentations--are aimed at taking your money.

What's at issue is a passage in the budget resolution Ryan released today, the fourth annual version of his "Path to Prosperity" budget. Like the others, this budget calls for large cuts in government programs for the poor, in order to preserve tax breaks for the rich and finance lavish defense spending.

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But what concerns us here is his description of the Social Security trust fund, which currently holds close to $3 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, all purchased with payroll tax income paid by working men and women since 1983.

The idea of building up this trust fund was to bank excess tax revenues against the looming wave of baby boomer retirements, which has now begun. But the trust fund is still growing, because Social Security's income streams--the payroll tax, interest on its bonds, and revenues from income taxation of benefits--still are sufficient to cover current benefits, and then some.

Ryan wants you to think different. Here's the passage in question, from page 66 of his plan.

"Any value in the balances in the Social Security Trust Fund is derived from dubious government accounting. The trust fund is not a real savings account. From 1983 to 2010, it collected more Social Security taxes than it paid out in Social Security benefits. But the government borrowed all of these surpluses and spent them on other government programs unrelated to Social Security. The Trust Fund holds Treasury securities, but the ability to redeem these securities is completely dependent on the Treasury’s ability to raise money through taxes or borrowing."

The same language appeared in Ryan's 2012 budget resolution, but not in his 2013 and 2014 versions (as far as we could tell). It's back now, and no more accurate or honest than it was three years ago.

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