My LTTE on Social Security

[Martin Eden]

The Chicago Tribune published an excellent commentary by R.C. Longworth titled Social Security fix -- the next disaster in its January 23 Perspective:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/perspective/chi-0501230005jan23,1,5294610.story?coll=chi-newsopinionperspective-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

They published 5 letteres today (Saturday January 29) in response to Longworth's commentary (scroll down):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/search/dispatcher.front

I sent a letter today in response to the two letters that were critical of Longworth; I'm posting it here now, while the other links are still available:

This is in response to letters in the Saturday Jan. 28 Voice of the People. Frank McCoy (The need for early social security reform) and Jay Fisher (Accounting tricks) pointed out that the Social Security Trust fund consists of debts the government owes to itself. We have already spent these funds; the IOU’s do not represent money in the bank. The unstated implication is that the trust fund is essentially worthless and the government should not be expected to fulfill its obligations because it can’t afford to.

This worthless trust fund was built up by working people, whose payroll taxes were increased in 1983 specifically to fund their retirement. In the last four years a large budget surplus has been turned into record deficits by tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and by the war of choice in Iraq. These policies are apparently to be financed by our future senior citizens. The Bush tax cuts are sacrosanct, while the government defaults on its debts to Social Security.

The proposed solution of partial privatization does nothing to finance the retirement of Americans who are currently middle-aged. If their benefits are not to be cut, the $2 trillion in transition costs will be added to the debt burden of the next generation. Rather than strengthening a system that functions well when its funds aren’t siphoned off for other purposes, the Bush plan will increase the deficits that created this “crisis” in the first place. Until the president and his party offer a realistic and equitable solution for financing their plan, it is reasonable to assume they are working to achieve the acknowledged goal of the far right – to destroy Social Security, not to save it.