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Tough Questions To Ask When The Campaign Comes To Town With the entire House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate, and the White House up for grabs this election season, senior votes will be especially sought after as incumbents try to maintain control of the House and Senate. How do you sort through the claims, excuses, finger-pointing, and promises? Here are some tough questions to ask on the issues: What Is The Best Use For The Budget Surplus? What to ask: Could you explain how "locking away" surplus Social Security taxes pays down the debt owed to the Social Security Trust Fund, and how you would guarantee that current retirees will continue to receive their Social Security benefits after 2015 when Social Security expenditures becomes higher than payroll taxes? Both Republicans and Democrats have pledged not to touch Social Security surpluses, but to use those surpluses to "protect Social Security" by paying down "debt." Which "debt?" Not the $789 billion debt to the Social Security Trust Fund-because there is no real Trust Fund. The Social Security Trust Fund is only an accounting device on paper. The "debt" is the general government debt. Lacking a true Social Security Trust Fund, paying down this debt, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, is the best way to shore up Social Security (and Medicare). It is better than Congress using the surplus on questionable new projects, tax cuts that the public doesn't want, or pork barrel spending. By the year 2015 however, Social Security will need to pay more in benefits than covered by the revenues coming in. Our government still has no plan to meet the unfunded promised benefits to current and future retirees. By 2015 the government must choose to raise taxes, cut benefits, borrow, or some combination of all of these in order to pay benefits as now promised. Paying down debt alone does not guarantee that current retirees will continue to receive the benefits they were promised after 2015. TSCL feels any changes to Social Security need be made well ahead of time in order to be gradual and incremental. Sudden changes could cause a "Notch" in benefits similar to the Notch that was created in 1977 when sudden changes affected those who started to retire a mere two years later-Notch babies born 1917 through 1926. Source: Testimony of Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Board Chairman before the Senate Committee On Aging, March 27, 2000.
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