SOCIAL SECURITY ADDS TO THE DEFICIT AND THE DEBT

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Human Events:

In seeking to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” President Obama and congressional Democrats say they want a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction. But to the President, “balance” apparently means $7 in tax hikes and fees for every $1 in actual spending cuts. He must see that if we go over the cliff, the impacts will be starkly uneven. The defense budget will be disproportionately affected—$492 billion in cuts from defense (accounting for 43 percent of sequestration cuts), $322 billion from non-defense discretionary spending (28 percent of cuts) and $171 billion from entitlement spending (15 percent of cuts), according to The Heritage Foundation.

Not only is Social Security – one-fifth of the federal budget – exempt from sequestration, even in negotiations to avoid sequestration, Democrats have taken it off the table. “We are not going to mess with Social Security,” says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-W.V.) That’s because “Social Security is not currently a driver of the deficit,” according to White House spokesman Tim Carney.

“Social Security does not add one penny to our debt — not a penny,” agrees the Democrats’ Senate Whip, Dick Durbin.