Greenspan: U.S. ‘Way Underestimating’ the National Debt
Former Fed Chairman calls Social Security trust fund “nonsense” and “meaningless”
(By – Nicholas Ballasy)
Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said a Social Security Trust Fund does not exist and that the U.S. is “way underestimating” the size of its national debt. “The notion that we have a trust fund is nonsense – that trust fund has no meaning whatsoever except for the fact as an all private fund to benefit programs, if it runs out of money, you can only pay out in cash flows that come in but the probability that will happen is not particularly high,” Greenspan told the Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. “That means the trust fund is a meaningless instrument that has no function … it’s exactly the same thing as current expenses.”
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees 2014 annual report said while legislation is needed to address all of Social Security’s financial imbalances, “the need has become most urgent with respect to the program’s disability insurance component. Lawmakers need to act soon to avoid automatic reductions in payments to DI beneficiaries in late 2016.” Read more…