Another Democrat Lies About Social Security

Dear Ms. Tyson,
Your 1/17/05 article in Business Week which said, "there is no crisis in Social Security" was a horrendous lie. I think you owe Business Week and your readers an apology, at the very least. If you had been honest you would have said, I'm a socialist New Deal liberal Democrat and I'll tell any lie to help keep Social Security in its present form." As President Clinton's national economic advisor we expect more from you.

The heart of your lie in contained in the following sentence, "the revenues into Social Security from the current level of payroll taxes will cover promised benefits for another 38 years." The lie is the assumption that because there is a separate Social Security Tax, the revenues from that tax are ear marked for Social Security recipients. You know this is not true. In point of fact there is no lock box or trust fund where Social Security revenues are segregated and held until mailed off to recipients.

100% of Social Security is paid to recipients out of general federal revenue. The problem, Ms. Tyson, is that the federal gov't collects $600 billion less revenue than it pays out each year and is $8 trillion in debt. Moreover, the Republicans, who have historically been far more responsible about balanced federal budgets, now seem as irresponsible as the Democrats always were, even despite ominous demographic trends and history making debt levels. So how in God's name can you say there is no crisis when Social Security recipients have to collect their money from a gov't like that? If you had to collect your income from a business or institution that was deeper in debt than at any time in its history and promised to get even deeper into debt, would you consider that a crisis?

To state the obvious, which seems to be necessary when talking to a Democrat, if Social Security revenue was held in a lock box or trust by a gov't with revenue surpluses and no debt, then, you could say "there is no crisis." Under the present circumstances you cannot say that.
comments: bje1000@aol.com