Reply #20: How is it being replenished?

[Martin Eden]

From what source of revenue, if not payroll taxes designated for SS, is the fund being "replenished"?

I asked you a direct question about the "money made up" because I don't know exactly what you mean by that, and you have not answered.

The "mixing" (or lumping together) of money (revenues & deficits, including SS) has been the R's framing of the issue all along. They dismiss the solvency of the SS Trust Fund by lumping the payroll taxes together with all revenue and talking about SS payments to retirees (current and future) in the context of the larger deficit issue. They conveniently ignore the "structure of the program" you refer to.

In the current political battle over taxes -- AND DEFICITS -- is the president or is he not arguing that SS revenues lost by extending the payroll tax cut will be "made up" by increasing revenues from other sources? Is that or is that not an argument that justifies the lost SS revenue by balancing it with increased revenue elsewhere -- ALL WITHIN THE LARGER CONTEXT of budget deficits?

If so, then it fits into the R's framing of the issue, blurring the distinction between SS funds and commitments with general revenues and expenditures and deficits.