From Orlando Sentinel June 10, 2013

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Fix government, not Social Security

by

Allen W. Smith

12:07 a.m. EDT, June 10, 2013 There is nothing broken about Social Security. The program has operated successfully for the past 78 years, and it is capable of doing so for another 78 years.

What is broken is the federal government, which has embezzled $2.7 trillion of Social Security's money and spent it on wars and other programs. If that $2.7 trillion had not been taken from the fund, Social Security would be able to pay full benefits for at least two more decades without any government action.

That is the situation in a nutshell. If the government repays its debt to Social Security, its short-run problems will be solved.  If the government also enacts legislation to remove the cap on income subject to the payroll tax, so that everyone pays taxes on all income, Social Security would be rock-solid for many decades to come, without any additional government action.

Most Americans would favor requiring the government to repay its debt to Social Security, and only high-income earners would object to removing the cap on income subject to the payroll tax.  So, why can't we enact this proposal into law and stop scaring the American people about the future of Social Security?

The enemies of Social Security are trying to kill it, just as they would kill a poisonous snake. They hate the continuing existence of government programs aimed at making America a more fair and just society. Since they cannot accomplish their goals through the open democratic process, they look for back-door opportunities to impose their minority views on the rest of society.

The primary motive for the large tax cuts under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush was to cut the size of the federal government. Their strategy was to cut taxes so the government would be forced to cut spending. Both Reagan and Bush followed the "starve-the-beast" strategy, which was to reduce revenue by so much that government programs would have to be cut, no matter how important or popular they were.

The public is being duped into believing that Social Security has structural problems, which justify cutting benefits. But that is not true . It is the federal government that has massive financial problems, none of which were caused by Social Security.

So let's fix government and leave Social Security alone.

Allen W. Smith of Winter Haven is a professor of economics, emeritus, at Eastern Illinois University.

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