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To: FuzzFace who wrote (64131)	2/2/2001 1:09:55 AM
From: Mark Adams	Respond to of 436258

I don't say it, the CBO does. Why do you say the national debt would be erased? It is just being transferred to the Social Security and other government retirement trust funds (oops, now called "Intragovernmental holdings" by the Treasury dept - thanks for the extra strength bureaucratese, W.) They still pay interest on it. So it is still owed. I agree, but there is a subtle difference between debt owed to others and debt owed to self. Think of the SS fund owning debt as someone borrowing from their 401k. The interest they pay goes to their 401k, so it does represent a real budget burden, but not quite the same as interest and debt owed to a third party. What will it mean to the economy to have created and dispersed $6 Trillion dollars via government spending over 2 decades (the 70's and 80's), recollected it via FICA payroll taxes and sequestered it (in the form of treasury bonds) in government held trust funds over the next 2 decades (90's and 00's) and finally, redeem it into federal reserve notes (cash) on the demand of retiring baby boomers? They can't refuse to pay out at least the $6T to retirees, since the money is owed in the same sense it is owed the Here we part ways. The SS program isn't really a trust fund, in that current revenues are used to pay current benefits. This is the failing, and as I understand it this has been the way that the SS has been structured from day 1. There is no guarentee, other than the heavy political influence of AARP, that the SS program will remain as is. It's quite possible that benefits will be means tested, and that the retirement age will be moved up as the 2013 peak approaches. It's quite likely that guys like me, at the tail end of the boomers, will not get the same value as people retiring now. Do I worry about that? No. I'm prepared to take care of myself. However, there are others who don't know how to save or manage their IRAs, and might be quite hurt by a change in the SS program. So- owing the money as a future benefit payable is not the same as owing the money to a foriegn power. current public bond-holders. Flush $6T into the economy again and you get what you got the first time they did it - inflation, either in assets or in consumer prices. And what happens when the $6T runs out? Well, between HIV and mad cow disease, that may not be a problem. In any case, things are likely to be quite different 10 years hence- so what's the point of worrying now? We have paid, elected people to worry for us. 10 years back, we were doomed to bankruptcy as a nation, and yet somehow we managed to get to a surplus, a little one albeit when the SS funds are not included. IMO, the SS tax burden saps economic strength, but some social support structure is a net positive on quality of life overall.