"Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit, it would go into the Social Security trust fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or erasing or lowering the deficit." -- former President and conservative idol St. Ronnie of Hollywood, on October 7, 1984. We're not in the habit of quoting the late President, but he's correct on this one.
It would be useful to engrave this statement on a large paddle, and apply it repeatedly to the backside of the debt and deficit hawks who conflate cutting discretionary spending with cutting what is essentially a public insurance trust funded through a dedicated tax. It's been Rethuglican orthodoxy for years to slyly undermine Social Security, but Dems, including the President, need to heed St. Ronnie in this instance.
(h/t to Daily Kos, who has the video)
