James McCusker’s March 20 column, “Immigrants’ lower birth rate bodes ill for Social Security,” made it seem like Social Security was on its last legs and that no one was paying attention. In the mid 1980s, Congress saw the problem, increased the taxes (my self-employed taxes almost doubled) and extended the age of retirement to overcome the problem for the next 50 years.
Our government borrowed the trust fund money to fight several wars without raising taxes to make the wars more acceptable. Now it is having to be paid back and Congress doesn’t like it, so they say “we’re in the red” to lower benefits, when in reality we’re using the extra funds we set aside for this time, but it was borrowed by the government. Therefore, the Treasury must pay it back. It was a “trust fund.” Congress is going to have to find those war funds after all by raising some taxes, or did they figure to have enough of the “boomer” generation killed to lower that demand? So asset reserves are going to be used. That’s what they were created for in the first place, to handle this baby boom bubble. The problem in 2033 is taken care of by increasing the employer portion of Social Security 1 percent and increase the Medicate insurance paid by employees 0.5 percent. Since more employers are deleting their retirement plans it is only fair that they help balance the retirement of all employees. By paying the extra 0.5 percent employees will create a system which will be around for them when they retire.
Over half of Americans alive were not here in 1986, so this is to tell them that it wasn’t overlooked, something was done. There have been good congresses and they will be more.
Chuck Best
Duvall
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