Category: Social Security
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More on Why Social Security is not Insurance
John Stossel, here: Twice the government has argued before the Supreme Court that Social Security is not insurance. In 1960, Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Arthur Sherwood Flemming submitted a brief to the courts stating: "The contribution exacted under the Social Security plan is a true tax. It is not comparable to a premium promising…
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Is Social Security Insurance?
(This first appeared on the predecessor blog on 15 April 2005.) Many supporters of the current Social Security system claim that it is a form of insurance. (See AARP Bulletin, April 2005, p. 38) I would like to ask these supporters some questions. (Q1) If SS is a form of insurance, what eventuality does it…
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Obama’s Social Security Fraud
My man Krauthammer nails it again: The new line from the White House is: no need to fix it [SS] because there is no problem. As Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew wrote in USA Today just a few weeks ago, the trust fund is solvent until 2037. Therefore, Social Security is now…
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More on Social Security as Welfare
In an earlier post I pointed out against Robert Samuelson that Social Security (SS), though in ways like a welfare scheme, is not a welfare scheme. Others are chiming in with Samuelson: Social Security is a welfare program masquerading as an insurance program. People may think of it as forced savings, but that isn't how…
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Samuelson on Social Security as Middle-Class Welfare
Here. Excerpt: Here is how I define a welfare program. First, it taxes one group to support another group, meaning it's pay-as-you-go and not a contributory scheme where people's own savings pay their later benefits. And second, Congress can constantly alter benefits, reflecting changing needs, economic conditions and politics. Social Security qualifies on both counts.…