Anne Tergesen

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4,485 appearances 83 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2017 last heard Feb 2025

Anne Tergesen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · Social Security Payments Could Be Affected if U.S. Hits Debt Limit · 15 May 2023 podcast

And it's up to $160,000 or so in change in compensation. matched

So that 12.4% is levied on up to $160,000 in compensation. matched

If you make more, you only pay the tax on that up to $160,000. matched

And so that money, it's the payroll tax, is set aside for Social Security. matched

So currently, that money basically pays for almost all the benefits that go out. matched

So in theory, you would think that that would mean that in the event that the government can't borrow, it doesn't really matter to Social Security because it's almost fully funded by payroll tax. matched

But in reality... matched

The way the government actually pays those benefits is completely different. matched

The payroll tax is kind of the way they account for Social Security expenditures, but it's not the way they actually pay them. matched

The fact that the government may be prevented from borrowing more money if they don't raise the debt ceiling would actually affect Social Security benefits because the way that the government actually pays those benefits is it has something called a general fund, which is the Treasury Department does, which is basically sort of a massive fund. matched

checking account for the federal government. matched

And so what happens is that most, if not all, of the federal government's bills flow through that account. matched

And as income tax revenue, payroll tax revenue, and borrowing and other sources of funds matched

come into the government's coffers, they flow through that general account too. matched

So the government has what they have said is that they pay their bills as they come due. matched

So on a given day, if Social Security checks are scheduled to go out, that will be one of matched

many bills that are in line to be paid on that particular day. matched

And if they can't borrow, then that means that the government, over the course of a year, can only, without borrowing, they're only going to be taking in enough revenue to cover 80% of their bills. matched

So that means on any given day, on average, they're only going to be able to pay 80% of the bills that they owe. matched

So, you know, it's possible that some things are going to be held over and delayed. matched

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