Really? Have you ever visited the White House? ;)
Actually SS in NOT a federal program supported by general revenue taxes. It is run by the SS administration and more akin to the US Postal Service.
The US treasury simply takes the money YOU and YOUR employer contribute and holds it in US Government Bonds, on which YOU are paying interest with your taxes, until it is distributed to you by the SS administration. Currently a lot of the contributions are going into US bonds.
In the not too distant future the government will need to start making good on all of those bonds, because as the boomers begin to retire there will not be enough workers contributing to meet the pay outs that will be made to all those same boomers. The balance will have to come from those US bonds.
When all the bonds are redeemed the SS administration will not have nearly enough coming in, from the workers and their employers at that time, to distribute the amounts currently promised to all of those receiving a SS check. At that point, if SS still exists, it WILL become a federal program and the money will need to come from much higher taxes on the workers. Taxes will probably nearly double by 2040 to supply the funds
What the President proposed, was allowing one to take 2% of his part, of his contribution to the SS fund, and invest it in a private account, so that those people smart enough to do it would have extra income when the bonds run out.
In 1964 Barry Goldwater proposed that workers be allowed to invest the TOTAL amount of their contribution and, with the exception of disability benefits, then receive only half of the SS payment they would otherwise be entitled to at retirement.
As one economist pointed out, when bush made his 2% proposal, if Goldwater had prevailed and that had become law over forty years ago, those people that invested would be close to being millionaires today and drawing interest and dividend payments much greater than the amount they now get for SS. They would not need to touch the principal, if they didn't need more money, and could pass that principal on to their heirs
In contrast, farm funds, hybrid rebates and the "earned income" tax credit, that give back more than some had withheld, are federal programs that tax you then YOUR money is given by the government to farmers, to stabilize food prices in the country because of the unpredictability of the weather, sent to Japan to clean the air, save the world and to help feed the poor
mike