According to the Final Monthly Treasury Statement, the U.S. Social Security Administration spent more money during the last fiscal year than it ever has before.
Social Security spending topped a trillion dollars.
That has never happened before.
In fact, they went $812 million over that trillion.
Other departments’ spending is dwarfed by the Social Security Administration. According to CNS News, Social Security spending was 37 times that of the Department of State and 32 times that of the Department of Justice.
The Department of Homeland Security, which Americans might assume would take some priority for spending, spent 20 times less than the Social Security Administration.
The Social Security Administration spent a total $1,000,812,000,000 in fiscal 2017, according to the Treasury.
That was about 37 times as much as the Department of State spent during the year ($27,061,000,000), 32 times as much as the Department of Justice ($30,977,000,000), and 20 times as much as the Department of Homeland Security ($50,502,000,000).
The $1,000,812,000,000 spent by the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2017 was also about 76 percent more than the federal government spent on Department of Defense and Military Programs ($568,905,000,000) during the year.
According to the Monthly Treasury Statement, the only major spending category that absorbed more money than the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2017 was the Department of Health and Human Services, which spent $1,116,764,000,000.
The combined $2,117,576,000,000 that the federal government spent on HHS and the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2017 equaled 53.2 percent of the $3,980,605,000,000 in total federal spending for the year.
The only Department that really competed with the high cost of Social Security was the Department of Health and Human Services. It spent $1,116,764,000,000 during the last fiscal year.
The combined $2,117,576,000,000 that the federal government spent on HHS and the Social Security Administration in fiscal 2017 equaled 53.2 percent of the $3,980,605,000,000 in total federal spending for the year.
The only Department that really competed with the high cost of Social Security was the Department of Health and Human Services. It spent $1,116,764,000,000 during the last fiscal year.
The increase in Social Security spending has been gradual and dramatic. It drastically increased in 2009, but has increased relatively little in the last year.
CNS News posted a graph (above)detailing how spending on Social Security went from $600 billion in 1997 to well over a trillion.
The Social Security Administration told CNS News that the Social Security program, for old age and survivors/disability insurance and the Supplemental Security Income Program combined to exceed $1 trillion dollars in spending for the fiscal year of 2017.
They defended themselves by reminding Americans that the Supplemental Security Income Program is funded through general federal tax revenues.
CNS News continues:
The record $1,000,812,000,000 that the Social Security Administration spent in fiscal 2017, as reported in the Monthly Treasury Statement, encompassed both the Social Security program itself (which includes Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance) and the Supplemental Security Income Program. The latter is administered by the Social Security Administration but is funded by general federal tax revenues.
As reported in Table 5 of the September Monthly Treasury Statement, the SSA spent $791,098,000,000 on benefit payments from the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund in fiscal 2017. It also spent $3,678,000,000 in administrative expenses for that fund and paid $4,316,000,000 to the Railroad Retirement Account.
The SSA also spent, as reported on Table 5, $142,957,000,000 on benefit payments from the Disability Insurance Trust Fund and $2,692,000,000 in administrative expenses for that fund.
The SSA also spent $58,710,000,000 on the Supplemental Security Income Program in fiscal 2017, according to the report.
Will Social Security spending continue to increase at break-neck speed?
Written by Brian Thomas and published by The Federalist Papers ~ October 26, 2017.
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