SOCIAL SECURITY SOUND, SAYS EMERSON

Changes are coming in the Social Security and Medicare programs, but both are financially sound, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson and a Social Security expert assured senior citizens Thursday.

Emerson and Max Richtman, executive vice president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, spoke at a public forum at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center.

Seniors receive numerous mailings and other information that the programs are nearing bankruptcy and threatening their financial security, Emerson said.

"They're trying to scare you, and I think that's wrong and irresponsible," she told the audience.

Emerson and Richtman said little action is expected on either of the huge federal benefit programs this legislative session. But next year there will be "a lot of proposals floating around" on the best way to shore up a deficit projected to hit the Social Security program after 2032, she said.

Richtman said there is enough money in the pot and enough people paying into Social Security to fund it at 100 percent of current benefits until 2032.

After that year, there will be sufficient funding to pay benefits at about 77 percent of the current level for another 20 years or so, he said.

"In order for Social Security to go broke, we'd have to have 100 percent unemployment, because as long as one person is working, money is coming in," Richtman said.

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program, he said. "Current workers are paying their taxes to pay for current retirees."

Changes will be necessary to prevent a "serious long-term financial shortfall" after 2032, when more people will be collecting Social Security than paying into the pot, he said.

One of the proposals that will probably come up before Congress next year would take Social Security off budget, meaning lawmakers could not use FICA tax revenues to pay for other government programs, Emerson said.

President Clinton's federal budget shows a $35 billion surplus, but that surplus is in Social Security, Richtman and Emerson said.

Emerson and Richtman both want the surplus put back into the Social Security program. Emerson said she would also favor using the surplus to pay down the federal deficit, now at more than $5 trillion.

Other proposals would allow Americans to invest their own Social Security funds rather than put it all in the federal pot.

Richtman said he is concerned that private investment wouldn't allow the same security as government investment because of the ups and downs of the stock market.

Congress will also be looking at adding a managed care component to Medicare, Emerson said, to help cut down costs to senior citizens.

Several members of the audience complained that finding a doctor who accepts new Medicare patients in Cape Girardeau is difficult.

Emerson said she was unaware of the problem and would see what lawmakers might be able to do to alleviate it.

"That is something that is good for me to know so that I can talk to my colleagues to see if they're hearing the same thing," she said.