Just another huge lie. I’m ashamed that the agency I worked at for 32 years would stoop to such bullshit.

We have lost so much.

I could go on, but you get the point. Not every country has lost what America’s president has destroyed.

Why? Although speech is still not totally free people are not afraid to speak out except about the monarchy. Universities are not under attack. People still believe in science and in the importance of robust public health systems. It’s comforting to know that food safety and climate science thrive

I’ve lived in Thailand since 2005. Throughout the pandemic getting vaccinated as an expat has been a challenge. Even though the current outbreak seems serious, no booster vaccines have been available since the putative end of the pandemic. Influenza vaccine? Sure, free for all. Covid? Nothing.

That’s all.

I know how Social Security works because making sure it works was my job for 30 years. I am a fierce defender of Social Security. But you can’t defend Social Security unless you tell the truth about it and call out people who spread untruths.

I dealt with policy issues and wrote lots of software including the code that ran the NMISSS. When that project was finally finished in the late 1990s I became the manager of the US Social Security office on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

I worked for the US Social Security system from 1975 until I retired in April of 2005. I spent most of that time working on the merger of the Northern Mariana Islands Social Security System (NMISSS) with US Social Security.

How incredibly mature of you. I’m done, too. Here’s why.

I don’t understand. The Social Security Trust Fund is in no way used to give anyone tax cuts. The Trust Fund is used to buy Treasury bonds. Treasury uses the proceeds to fund current Federal expenses. When the bonds mature the Trust Fund gets the money back with interest. (Simplified somewhat.)

Both of these programs are administered by the US Social Security Administration.

I think you’re confusing SSI (Supplemental Security Income) with Social Security. SSI is a Federal public assistance program for people who have limited income and resources and who are age 65, disabled or blind. Social Security is a Federal social insurance program funded by social security taxes.

I don’t understand what you’re saying.

There’s no way anyone can get Social Security benefits unless they paid SS tax for ten years or are the spouse, child, surviving spouse or surviving child of such a person. (I’ve simplified that for readability.) Could she have been getting SSI instead of Social Security?

Was it survivor benefits based on her husband’s work? Or, did she pay Social Security self-employment taxes based on her farm income?

This is the way it is supposed to work. This is the way it has always worked.

This is how it’s been since the original Social Security Act. The law was written this way to prevent Congress or anyone else from getting their hands on the fund. There is nothing nefarious about this. There is nothing “creative” about the accounting. It is all above board and transparent.

Social Security is a pay-as-you go Social Insurance program funded by social security taxes almost all of which are used to pay current benefits. Any excess goes to the Social Security Trust Fund which, by law, is used to purchase special, non-marketable Treasury notes (bonds).