Your Opinion: Response to Smith on Social Security

Dear Editor:

In Mr. Smith's letter of Sept. 23 he states that to say the SSA is broke, is a lie. I agree with him 1,000 percent, as long as you also believe that if you have $1 million dollars in Confederate currency, you are a millionaire!

The SSA does not have the $2.2 trillion in the bank, but in U.S. treasuries. We are spending $4 trillion a year and have to borrow $1.2 trillion a year above that which we bring in. Included in the $4 trillion are payments to our Social Security recipients. The SSA may have IOUs from the fed, rather than cash on hand, but the fed has to borrow the money so that the SSA can meet their obligations. Guess what, someone is broke.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation. The only difference between this definition and what the federal government does with SS is, some would say it is not fraudulent; otherwise it is a Ponzi scheme.

To say subsequently, "Looney Tunes," indicates that you must be living in a cartoon world. You can and probably will continue to believe that SSA has the money and those that believe otherwise are crazy or worse, but the facts are the facts. You remind me of the mother who while watching her son march at his boot camp graduation said to her husband, "Look Paul, our son is the only one in step!"

As a Social Security recipient, I want to ensure it is there for not only my children but my grandchildren.

The age at which one receives SSA should be raised, as life expectancy has risen since SSA was first instituted. That age should slowly go up to 70 or 75, as it was 66 for me and is continuing to rise to 67 under current law, thank you Al Gore.

Also, it should be means tested as Bill Gates probably could get by without that additional money. A problem with means testing is, some would then say that SSA is just another welfare program, not a retirement program.

Those that constantly say that the Republicans are out to eliminate SSA, are the liars.

Movie title
Grade: grade here
Cast: cast here
Director: director here
Rating: rating here
Running time: minutes
Showtimes and Ticket Info