Social Security Trust Fund Deniers

Over at EconoSpeak, I went off on one of my pet peeves. You see – I took President Reagan at his word back in 1983 when he said that higher payroll tax that I’ve paid for almost a quarter of a century was designed to insure I would get my promised Social Security benefit, which is why I continue to separately report the Trust Fund surpluses and the General Fund deficits. Just like there are Global Warming Deniers, there are Trust Fund Deniers.

So when anyone tout the alleged deficit progress by citing the unified deficit, it is time to chalk them up as a Trust Fund Denier. A prime example is Greg Mankiw who declares the current unified deficit to be not so bad with the real problems is that folks like me will soon be expecting Social Security retirement benefits to actually be paid.