One advocate said the Texas Republican laid bare the "two-pronged strategy to push Social Security privatization: Creating the Trump accounts with one hand and gutting the Social Security Administration with the other."

In the not-too-distant future, Cruz envisioned, “we’re going to be able to go to parents and say, ‘Hey, you know that Trump Account your kid has? … Wouldn’t you like to be able to keep a portion of your tax payments that you’re paying already and, instead of sending it to Uncle Sam, wouldn’t you like to have a Trump Account just like your kid does?’'’

“My prediction is, within five years, that is going to have a really compelling constituency,” the Texas Republican added.___

    • tburkhol@slrpnk.net
      2·
      6 hours ago

      Right: SSA buys a treasury bill, and congress gets to treat that as income for the general budget. For a long time, SSA was the largest holder of US debt. Their surplus has been falling, while the Federal Reserve has bought up tons of Treasuries every time there’s an economic crisis and have now eclipsed SSA. Fed holds about $4.5T, while Japan holds barely $1.2T

      Whether you think of these inter-governmental loans as “investments,” is probably a matter of where you fall on pedantry. If I take a loan from my 401k for down payment on a house, I don’t think of that as “investing” my 401k in the house.