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News

Social Security running deficits now, will be bankrupt by 2037

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Last Republican budget was in 2006
Last Republican budget was in 2006

This is from CBS News. (H/T Robert Stacy McCain)

Excerpt:

Social Security’s finances are getting worse as the economy struggles to recover and millions of baby boomers stand at the brink of retirement.

New congressional projections show Social Security running deficits every year until its trust funds are eventually drained in about 2037.

This year alone, Social Security is projected to collect $45 billion less in payroll taxes than it pays out in retirement, disability and survivor benefits, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. That figure swells to $130 billion when a new one-year cut in payroll taxes is included, though Congress has promised to repay any lost revenue from the tax cut.

The massive retirement program has been feeling the effects of a struggling economy for several years. The program first went into deficit last year, but the CBO said at the time that Social Security would post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into deficits in 2016.

The outlook, however, has grown bleaker as the nation struggles to recover from the worst economic crisis since Social Security was enacted during the Great Depression. In the short term, Social Security is suffering from a weak economy that has payroll taxes lagging and applications for benefits rising. In the long term, Social Security will be strained by the growing number of baby boomers retiring and applying for benefits.

The deficits add a sense of urgency to efforts to improve Social Security’s finances. For much of the past 30 years, Social Security has run big surpluses, which the government has borrowed to spend on other programs. Now that Social Security is running deficits, the federal government will have to find money elsewhere to help pay for retirement, disability and survivor benefits.

You may remember that George W. Bush tried to reform Social Security during his Presidency, but left-wing media and the Democrats cowed him into submission. Shut up, they explained. Just like they shut him up on his plan to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back in 2003.

Here’s why nothing is going to be done to fix the problem. (H/T Hyscience)

It’s not going to be fixed until we vote out every last Democrat and replace them with grown-ups from the grown-up party.

News

Democrat-controlled Congress added 5.34 trillion to national debt

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The last Republican budget was in 2006
The last Republican budget was in 2006

Here’s the story from CNS News, which the OFFICIAL NUMBERS from the Treasury Department.

Excerpt:

In the 1,461 days that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the national debt increased by a total of $5.343 trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.

Pelosi was the 52nd speaker of the House. During her tenure, she amassed more debt than the first 49 speakers combined.

[…]When Pelosi was sworn in on Jan. 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2011, her last full day in the speakership, it stood at 14,014,049,043,294.41–an increase of $5,343,452,800,321.37.

[…]When Pelosi became speaker in  January 2007 she was emphatic that there would be no new deficit spending.

“After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” she said in her inaugural address from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt.”

And a quick refresher about who controlled the House and the Senate at different times:

Year Congress President Senate (100) House (435)
2009 111th D D – 55*** D – 256
2007 110th R D – 51** D – 233
2005 109th R R – 55 R – 232
2003 108th R R – 51 R – 229
2001 107th R D* R – 221
1999 106th D R – 55 R – 223
1997 105th D R – 55 R – 228
1995 104th D R – 52 R – 230
1993 103rd D D – 57 D – 258

All government spending originates in the House of Representatives, so spending was a Democrat problem since the Democrats took over the House (and Senate) in January 2007. They own this recession.

And the reason that things went well in the Clinton Presidency is because the Republicans were in control of all the spending.

News

What is the cost of extending unemployment benefits?

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Consider this piece in the Denver Post. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

Excerpt:

Businesses are being hit with large premium increases to prop up Colorado’s broke unemployment-insurance fund.

In notices that went out over the past two weeks, some firms are facing rates that have more than quadrupled from last year.

“I had to pick myself up off the floor after I opened the letter,” said Linda Greene, owner of Westminster-based Merry Maids North. Her first-quarter premium for 2011 will be $2,200, compared with $497 a year earlier.

“Money doesn’t just fall out of the sky, so I’m going to have to totally rework my budget and hope for the best,” said Greene, who employs 28 workers.

The Colorado Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund covers the cost of payments to jobless workers. Record numbers of unemployment claims caused the fund to go broke this year, forcing Colorado to borrow, so far, $368.5 million from the U.S. government.

At least 40 other states also are borrowing from the federal government to cover their fund deficits.

Colorado’s unemployment-benefit payments rose from $305 million in 2005 to $1.06 billion in 2009.

…In prior years, firms that never had laid off workers had relatively low premiums.

But for 2011, those businesses are facing big increases along with companies that have histories of layoffs.

Colorado labor department executive director Don Mares said many companies with higher claims histories already are near the state’s maximum rate of 5.4 percent of the first $10,000 a worker earns.

As a result, businesses with low claims histories are being required to pay higher rates to make up the deficit.

“This is a huge inequity,” said Chuck Mock, owner of a Longmont-based software-consulting firm. “If you keep paying into the system and don’t take anything out, that should be a good thing. But not in this case.”

Wow. Could it be that it is these constant extensions of unemployment benefits that are scaring small businesses into not hiring anyone? Could it be that this is just another one of Obama’s stealth tax hikes?

You can’t argue with the fact that Obama is the worst jobs President ever. Maybe it’s Obama’s policies that are causing the record unemployment. Maybe effects have causes. Maybe having an ACORN lawyer as President is not the best thing to do in a recession.