[Vision2020] closures and SS payments

Wed Oct 9 10:10:13 PDT 2013

A slight correction: considering Social Security receipts as part of a unified budget started under Lyndon Johnson in 1968. 
 It was modified in 1985-86 to be separate for budgeting purposes, but could still be considered as part of the total deficit, then changed in 1990 to be off-budget again. However, SS income is still used to purchase US Government Bonds the funds from which can be used for general purposes. Confused?

The BEA budget treatment of Social Security basically remains the law to the present day. Specifically, present law mandates that the two Social Security Trust Funds, and the operations of the Postal Service, are formally considered to be "off-budget" and no longer part of the unified federal budget. (The Medicare Trust Funds, by contrast, are once again part of the unified budget.) So where matters stand presently is that the transactions to the Social Security Trust Funds and the operations of the Postal Service are "off-budget" and everything else is "on-budget."
However, those involved in budget matters often produce two sets of numbers, one without Social Security included in the budget totals and one with Social Security included. Thus, Social Security is still frequently treated as though it were part of the unified federal budget even though, technically, it no longer is.
So, to sum up:
1- Social Security was off-budget from 1935-1968;
2- On-budget from 1969-1985;
3- Off-budget from 1986-1990, for all purposes except computing the deficit;
4- Off-budget for all purposes since 1990.
Finally, just note once again that the financing procedures involving the Social Security program have not changed in any fundamental way since they were established in the original Social Security Act of 1935 and amended in 1939. These changes in federal budgeting rules govern how the Social Security program is accounted for in the federal budget, not how it is financed.
http://www.ssa.gov/history/BudgetTreatment.html

Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA

On Wednesday, October 9, 2013 9:16 AM, "rhayes at frontier.com" <rhayes at frontier.com> wrote:

Who's going to pick up and empty the trash? Who's going to protect our national monuments and parks from vandalism and damage? Is there a liability issue if someone gets hurt. Who's going to keep the peace and defend those who expect civility? Who's going to clean the bathrooms and vaults? Many other issues here.
>Anyone looking at their pay stubs will see SS funds come from a different source and dumped into the general pot (another Bush legacy).
>What are the Republicans wishing for this country? Sort of a 3rd world Mad Max survival of the fittest (richest) is what it looks like. I suppose everyone should get their guns out and cleaned, bury their gold in the back yard and hunker down with prepper freeze dried food, and ammo and wait for the "end of days" (Michelle Bachman).
> 
>
>
>From: "vision2020-request at moscow.com" <vision2020-request at moscow.com>
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
>Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2013 8:40 AM
>Subject: Vision2020 Digest, Vol 88, Issue 126
> 
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>   1. Re: Wife of fallen firefighter breaks her silence (Paul Rumelhart)
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 08:40:24 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
>To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>, Moscow Vision 2020
>    <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wife of fallen firefighter breaks her
>   
 silence
>Message-ID:
>    <1381333224.17738.YahooMailNeo at web163604.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>This leads me to a question.? Who decides that death benefits will be frozen during the shutdown, but that Social Security payments will continue?? Why are monuments that are unstaffed when open now have security guards to keep the public away?
>
>Is this laid out in law somewhere, or is it fully at the whim of the executive branch?
>
>Paul
>
>
>
>
>On Wednesday, October 9, 2013 7:34 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>As the clock ticks on . . .
>
>Courtesy of KOB
 News (Albuquerque, New Mexico) at:
>
>http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3178641.shtml?cat=500
>?
>---------------------------------
>Wife of fallen firefighter breaks her silence
>For the first time, the wife of fallen wildland firefighter Token Adams breaks her silence.
>Adams was killed about a month ago in an ATV crash while checking out reports of smoke in the Jemez Mountains.
>In just the last few weeks, his wife Hiedi not only lost her husband, she also gave birth to a daughter.
>Now, the federal government shutdown has frozen her late husband's federal benefits.
>It is a difficult conversation. The first one she's had out in the open since her husband's death.
>But she says her voice is one of many wives and husbands and children helpless as the federal government shuts down and leaves them with nowhere to turn
 for help.
>In every stream and sun-painted canvas of the Jemez, Hiedi Adams hears the whispers of a man she says belonged to this land.
>"It's hard, driving into the mountains," Hiedi said. "'Cause I see him. It's hard. It's hard to see it every day."
>As days turned into a week in early September, at the end of a long search in the same mountains he loved, Token Adams, the love of Hiedi's life was found lifeless on a stable mesa in the Jemez.
>"Doesn't really seem like it's happened," Hiedi said. "It's miserable. Lonely."
>But that crushing loss, that loneliness, became joy two weeks ago when Hiedi gave birth to Ayla.
>But, just as the joy set in, so did the government shutdown.
>"I had a meeting set for benefits tomorrow," Hiedi said.
>Hiedi was supposed to finalize her late husband's federal benefits, but the meeting set for tomorrow has been canceled. She's told it could be as much as four weeks before Token's benefits
 begin.
>Suddenly a single mom, Hiedi said she wants New Mexicans to know what families like hers are going through as the federal government furloughs employees. She said she's one of the lucky ones. The community has stepped up with donations.
>"That's what I'm living off of," Hiedi said.
>But, not everyone is in her shoes.
>"You know, you have families who are both on government pay and you think up to four weeks without a paycheck, what's that going to do for their families?" Hiedi wondered. "I feel for them. It's going to be really tough."
>And tough doesn't seem to do it justice. But then Hiedi looks around, at the mountains echoing her husband's memory, and her children echoing it too. And happiness reigns, for now.
>--------------------
>Hiedi Adams with her newborn daughter, Ayla.
>---------------------------------
>
>
>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants
 on)
>http://www.moscowcares.com/
>??
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>"There's room at the top they are telling you still?But first you must learn how to smile as you kill?
>If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
>- John Lennon
>
>??
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