Perry's Ponzi Scheme

            Rick Perry has been blasted for calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. How could he have said something so stupid?

            Let's see. A short definition of a Ponzi scheme is an operation that is fraudulent because it pays returns to investors not from actual profits earned, but from money paid by subsequent investors.

            Hmm. Social Security pays retirees not from an empty Social Security Trust Fund, but from current Social Security payroll taxes on current employees and their employers. Where did all that Trust Fund money go? Why the government took it to fund other things. Like the stimulus package, for example. So there is no money to pay future retirees. In the real world that's called an unfunded pension liability.

            Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

            To make matters worse, President Obama is proposing to cut payroll taxes yet again, to the tune of a $175 billion tax holiday.

            Not to worry. The Anointed One says Social Security will still receive every dollar it would have gotten otherwise through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security Trust Fund.

            The General Fund? Isn't that the one that's $14 trillion dollars in debt?

            Sounds like a double Ponzi scheme to me.

            Rick Perry didn't say something so stupid after all.