The Social Security Dialogue

We need far more robust reform than the President is proposing.

by Rod D. Martin
January 29, 1998

President Clinton's State of the Union attempt to deal with Social Security is admirable, if a tad disingenuous. While failing to point out that the great budget surplus of 1998 exists only by raiding Social Security's coffers in the first place, the President did at least address the issue.

Clinton's solution is more of the same: throw money at the problem. But Social Security is not a problem that money can fix.

Social Security is not at all what it appears to be. People are told that they pay into a "trust fund" which will provide for them in old age, but of course this is lie: whatever monies Social Security taxes take in are spent immediately, both on the program itself and on other federal programs as well. This should be obvious. If your money was really in a trust fund, there would be no issue as to whether it would be there when you retired.

Your Social Security "investment" presently earns a 2.2 percent return. You would earn more with a passbook…