LETTERS: DEBATE IS OVER NONEXISTENT SURPLUS

To the editor:

Over the past several weeks, I have read numerous newspaper articles and have seen several television talk shows that featured arguments between Democrats and Republicans about what to do with the so-called federal budget surplus. Republican leaders say they want to use the surplus to cut taxes. President Clinton and many other Democrats want to use the surplus to keep Social Security solvent a bit longer. Still other Democrats, and probably a few Republicans, want to use it to increase spending on their favorite programs. As a Libertarian, I get both angry and amused at this debate.

This debate has that effect on me because these people are all arguing about something that doesn't exist. There is no surplus. Federal debt is increasing, and the Congressional Budget Office projects further increases for the foreseeable future. The fictional surplus is a result of the creative accounting that goes on in Washington. The federal government has been collecting more Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes than has been needed to pay benefits to current recipients. Rather than cutting payroll taxes or earmarking the extra funds to pay future benefits, Congress has been using them to offset spending on other programs totally unrelated to Social Security or Medicare.

Before they gained control of Congress, Republicans regularly pointed this out every year at budget time. They correctly claimed that the actual deficit was larger than stated. Now that this deceptive accounting practice results in something called a surplus, they are as quick to take credit for it as Bill Clinton or any other Democrat. Apparently, we have entered an era of true bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats have agreed to tell the same lie.

Republicans are correct. They should cut taxes. However, they need to cut them because they are excessive, not because of some imaginary surplus. President Clinton is correct. Social Security needs reform, but using the so-called surplus to shore up Social Security is utter nonsense. What they are calling a surplus consists mainly of Social Security funds to begin with. A minimal start for reform would be to quit spending the money on unrelated programs. The other politicians who want to increase spending are merely advocating the same deficit spending that has been going on for decades. Talk of a surplus, real or imaginary, only whets their insatiable appetite for more of the same.

Unfortunately, this debate by Democrats and Republicans over the nonexistent surplus obscures a very real and important issue which they are unwilling to address: the national debt. The consequences of allowing the debt to grow without limit, as the Republicans and Democrats appear to be willing to do, will be severe. Its not surprising that members of neither party want to address the issue. Acknowledging the seriousness of the problem would require an admission of their joint responsibility for the growth of the national debt to its present astronomical level. Reducing and eventually eliminating the debt will require significantly reducing the size and power of the federal government. Democrats and Republicans are not willing to do that, and it is unlikely that they ever will be. Libertarians, on the other hand, are ready and willing to fix the problem.

During this election season, you will see two different campaign approaches to this issue. Democrats and Republicans will discuss various uses for an imaginary surplus. Libertarians will give you straight talk about fixing the problem. It's your choice whom to believe.

CHARLES D. TAYLOR

Poplar Bluff