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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (613051)	8/29/2004 10:14:58 AM
From: Peter O'Brien	Respond to of 769670

The mere fact that the SS surplus can be raided is one of the fatal flaws of the system. There are "checks and balances" in other parts of the government. Why not for SS? If the program is not going to be privatized (which is the best solution), there should at least be independent administrators of the SS trust funds who are free to invest the assets any way they think is best (not necessarily a 100% forced investment in Treasury bonds as is done now).

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (613051)	8/29/2004 10:50:21 AM
From: tonto	Respond to of 769670

BUDGET FACTS: A Presidential Commission headed by Alan Greenspan recommended in 1982 that payroll taxes be increased in order to partially pre-fund the retirement of the Baby Boomers, the largest generation in American history. But rather than saving the surpluses to prepare for the massive demographic shift, Congress has borrowed them ever since for other government programs and to make the federal deficit appear smaller. Since 1983, $647 billion has been borrowed from Social Security's trust fund to lower the size of annual U.S. budget deficits. Money borrowed from the trust fund will have to be paid back through tax increases or benefit cuts once the Boomers start collecting their Social Security retirement checks. While the Social Security system is running annual surpluses today, it will begin running growing annual deficits around 2012.