I am not interested in hearing anything about a "grand budget compromise” being considered between Dems and GOPers in Congress that includes changes to Social Security. I have paid into the Social Security Trust Fund with deductions from every pay check I have earned since I was 16 years old – that would now be 33 years of payments The gov’t has irresponsibly not kept the trust fund segregated from the general fund. For those of you that immediately think of “tax and spend liberals” – take a deep breath. It hasn’t mattered if it was Republicans or Democrats in control of one, or both, houses of Congress, or the White House. Both political parties have used budget trick the same exact way to use the enormous surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund to make the overall government budget appear to be in better shape.
I own US Savings Bonds. These were purchased many years ago and have reached maturity. I can now cash these in if I so choose. Whenever I do decide I want to redeem them, there is no doubt that the gov’t will have the money to make the payout to me. Same goes for the US debt that China or any other entity holds. The Social Security Trust Fund is no different. In essence what happened is that the gov’t borrowed from my “gov’t sponsored IRA” – Social Security. When they did they placed into the trust fund special versions of United States Treasury Bonds. They chose to do this to pay for other things that included military hardware, roads and bridges, tax breaks to individuals and corporations, subsidies to countless industries – those that needed them to grow and expand, and many that didn’t. Now is the time to settle up and redeem the bonds and put the money back into Social Security to make it whole. Once this is put back and the canard of Social Security being broke is eliminated, there can be a conversation about how to move forward with the debt of the general fund.
The discussion about the debt in the US needs to occur without it including Social Security changes like raising the retirement age, or slashing benefits. The long-term funding concerns for Social Security (meaning beyond 2050) can be addressed by making small adjustments like raising the income cap on which the tax is paid, or making a small increase in the tax rate. No immediate changes are needed, and no major changes are needed in the long term. Just as the GOP will argue against discussing energy policy changes in wake of a disasterous oil spill in the Gulf, or multiple nuclear meltdowns in Japan, Social Security changes should not be debated in wake of the worst resession since the Great Depression and its related debt, or two unfunded wars.
To address the debt of our country we should focus on the health care system in the US – the most expensive in the world (without corresponding #1 ranked outcomes) and the military-industrial complex. How is paying a public school teacher, or a police officer, any different than taking those same tax dollars and giving them to the Defense Department to give to General Electric to buy fighter jet engines? One buys educated children and safe neighborhoods, and the other buys more jet fighters than our country needs. How can there be a serious discussion about the debt of country when the focus is on teacher pay and benefits, and not the enormous amount of tax money eaten up by defense and a terribly inefficient and wasteful healthcare deliver system. I am not suggesting that we lower our defenses to a dangerous point. But rather, we pay for defense and health care, but not on the back of Social Security or teachers or police officers and firefighters. If the amount of money we want to spend on defense is causing a deficit, then raise the taxes to porperly fund it.
Attacking Social Security is not the answer, or any part of it. Remember years ago when Al Gore talked about a Social Security Lock Box and the GOP laughed? The man knew what he was talking about. Let you Congressional Representatives and Senators (both Democratic and Republican) know this. Call or write them today.
No comments:
Post a Comment