Tommy Thompson thinks the Chinese pay for our Social Security

[Report1212]

Does he not understand what payroll taxes are, or that Social Security actually helps finance the debt?

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At a recent Republican Party event in Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson ludicrously claimed that China is paying for a portion of every Social Security and Medicare check mailed to seniors:

THOMPSON: I look at the fact that 40 cents out of every dollar, ladies and gentleman, is borrowed mainly from the Chinese. Every Social Security check, every Medicare check 40 cents is borrowed from the Chinese. Does that make you comfortable?

Read more: http://boldprogressives.org/video-tommy-thompson-ludicrously-claims-china-pays-for-our-social-security-checks/

[JoePhilly]

1. By that logic, 40% of his Salary is paid by China too. Idiot.

[liberal N proud]

2. That is what they want their base to believe

And they will repeat it as if it is a fact and we will be stuck in endless conversations with the door knobs called republicans and tea baggers.

[Report1212]

5. They want to cut Social Security

If not end it, and this is the sort of stuff they say to justify that.

[JDPriestly]

3. No. The money comes from paychecks and from the Social Security Trust Fund.

Yes, Tommy, the statute creates a Social Security Trust Fund to be managed by the Secretary of the Treasury. It is full of the surplus created by Ronald Reagan's increase in our payroll taxes -- preparing for the rush of babyboomers who would start retiring just about now.

The problem is, Tommy, that the republicans borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, looted the treasury in order to pay the fat salaries of their friends in the military-industrial complex and fight unnecessary wars. And now, those same Republicans don't want to raise taxes on the friends they paid those fat salaries to in order to pay back the Social Security Trust Fund and keep seniors in food and heating oil.

The Chinese buy our bonds because our bonds are a safe investment.

Social Security is not the problem.

Keeping high-wage jobs in the US so that payroll tax revenues remain adequate and keeping our currency competitive so that our products and services can compete in the world are two of our biggest problems.

Seniors are not the problem. Greedy wealthy people who don't want to pay taxes on capital gains or estate taxes, enact tariffs, or defend our jobs and wages are the problem.

[exboyfil]

4. Money is fungible but what Thompson

is saying is that the same payroll tax structure should exist and the proceeds should go directly into the general fund thus cutting the benefits for current retirees and making it impossible for future retirees to receive benefits.

S.S. is currently at a little better than Pay as you Go and maintains around $2.7T in assets (Treasuries) which swamps what the Chinese own in Treasuries ($1.2T). The Japanese also own about $1.2T.

[pampango]

6. Here's one from Krugman about the declining amount of borrowing from foreign countries.

Ah. Let’s give thanks to Rob Portman, who offered a nice break from all the lies in Tampa, and instead offered us some good old-fashioned bad macroeconomics. Obama won’t take on China, Portman said, because:

Obama could not run up his record trillion dollar deficits if the Chinese did not buy our bonds to finance them...

How is it possible that we’re borrowing much less from foreigners when the government deficit has gone up so much? The answer is that the private sector is deleveraging, having moved into massive surplus as consumers try to pay down debt and corporations hold back on investment in the face of weak consumer demand. All those government deficits have only partly offset this move, so that overall national borrowing from overseas is down, not up.

So who’s actually financing the US budget deficit? The US private sector. We don’t need Chinese bond purchases, and if anything we’re the ones with the power, since we don’t need their money and they have a lot to lose. In fact, we don’t want them to buy our bonds; better to have a weaker dollar (a point that the Japanese actually get.)

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/fear-of-china-syndrome/

[Thinkingabout]

7. How does the GOP come up with people so dumb about government running for offices?

When you run for Congress you should study the operations of government. I wonder of those listening to their "tales" have gotten so used to the crap coming out of Rush and Shame they just accept what they are told.

[WinkyDink]

8. ANOTHER one who thinks people receive a "Medicare check"!

[Viking12]

9. Not even 40% of the money we actually borrow comes from China

China holds less than 10% of our debt.