Comments on Wall Street Journal’s article today, “Perry, Romney, and Social Security”
by Robert Weiner
o Robert Weiner wrote:
To say "Yes, Social Security is a Ponzi scheme," or to say it's not funded by seniors, is a fraud against all the seniors who paid in (as well as current young people) and who have had their pay-in matched by employers according to law, keeping the system solvent through at least 2037 and at least 75% funded after that according to the LAST Social Security deal in 1983 by Tip O'Neill, Ronald Reagan, Claude Pepper, and others on the bipartisan commission. And to say it does not earn interest is incorrect--YES it earns interest-- US bonds interest, also according to the deal and the law. The fact that the government used the money for whatever other purposes has nothing to do with its still owing seniors the money they paid and earned as an insurance program. Can a bank tell you it lent the money you deposited to others so it does not have it any more? Any entity is still responsible for our money, especially the US government. Social Security has kept and keeps seniors out of poverty and is the most successful social program in history. Don't mess with it!
-- Robert Weiner, former Chief of Staff, US House Committee on Aging 301-283-0821 weinerpublic@comcast.net