Do not look at the liability behind that curtain! Or: Do not mention that we don’t know what the liabilities are.
Some things are too painful to report.
Apparently.
The folks who audit the Social Security Administration are late on a set of reports. The reports in question account for the financial and actuarial (un)soundness of Social Security, specifically on the (un)funded liabilities of the pension system and Medicare.
Unlike corporations, which are required to report to the IRS on March 15 each year, and individuals, who must report on April 15, there’s no set date for the trustees of our federal government’s biggest program to make its report. But in recent years the reports have been published early enough to allow summary by May. The last report summary we have is for 2009.
Why so late?
Could it be that things have gotten so bad that it’s difficult to figure out — and embarrassing to sign one’s name to — the actual financial situation? After all, this year Social Security ran out of money to write checks for its promised (and quite immediate) pay-outs.
Sheila Weinberg, CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, writes that she heard the reports were late because “trustees wanted to include the effect the health care bill had on these liabilities.” Ms. Weinberg not unreasonably challenges this rationale. Wouldn’t Social Security’s liabilities have been worth knowing before Congress committed to more entitlement spending?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “The Liability Behind the Curtain”
That would only make sense if you intended to let the report actually affect your decision making…
I keep hearing about how broke the SSA is and how it will fail, therefore, it should be abolished or turned over to those insurance companies. SSA would be in good shape if Congress had not dipped into its income for their own pet projects. Congress should refund the money it took from SSA and keep their hands off the fund.
Let us just have the government pay back to the Society Fund the money they have stolen from it for years. This was supposed to be an investment from the salaries of workers to earn interest and be paid back to workers who reached retirement age. My husband worked for 50 years — I worked for 50 years also. I now receive HALF OF WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS BENEFIT –the rest of the money he put in — and all of my input just disappeared. Summary — the government stole money which should belong to seniors.
A BAD END IS GOING TO COME TO THOSE THAT RUN THE GOVERNMENT THEY ARE GOING TO GET THE WRONG PERSON/PEOPLE ANGRY ONE DAY AND SOMETHING VERY BAD WILL HAPPEN IT WILL NOT BE ME BUT I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THEM SQUASHED LIKE THE RODENTS THEY ARE