Serial Rape -- Congress on Social Security

For years the revenue collected from employers and workers as a payroll tax to suppoort Social Security ( not subject to any deductions, by the way) has exceded the needs of Social Security. That's right. There has been a surplus collected every year for many years.

And every year that "surplus" has been treated as ordinary income to the Treasury and spent. It has not been accumulating for future Social Security needs. When the president says the system will be "bankrupt" in a few years, what that means is that expenses will excede income. Since past excess collections will have been spent, the term "bankrupt" is fairly apt. Very much the same way that if I choose to spend all that I earn and set nothing aside for future needs I will become bankrupt when those needs come due.

Once again, the Senate has voted to continue pissing away that overage.