LETTERS: CUT OUT SOCIAL SECURITY, OTHER COSTS

To the editor:

This is a letter I have sent to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson:Representative Emerson,I recently received a letter from you on federal tax on income. In this letter you state, "Taxes in this country are simply too high, the result of years of misguided tax-and-spend policies. I think families and individual citizens know better than Uncle Sam how to spend their hard-earned incomes. We need to reduce the size of government, get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy and return the savings to the taxpayers. However, while I unequivocally support additional tax relief, I remain committed to the belief that we first have to pay back the money that has been borrowed from Social Security and pay down the national debt, which is now approximately $5.5 trillion."I agree with you that the individuals who earn the money should be able to keep it to spend, save or give away as they see fit so long as they do not interfere with any other individuals right to do the same. My question is, when is Congress going to start cutting out unnecessary programs? When are you going to start paying the national debt? We have heard these same scenarios for many years now, but the Social Security fund is still being utilized for spending, the national debt keeps increasing with nothing being paid on the net, and bureaucracy keeps expanding with a bigger and bigger budget.

If there are any tax cuts or tax relief, it is for certain groups of people, many who dont contribute or contribute very little to the tax fund in the first place. You say that the Social Security fund must be paid back. Who borrowed this money? If the federal government could not live on its budget, it should have cut back on programs, not expect wage-earning Americans to keep bailing out a failing system. I agree, Americans who now depend on Social Security must be taken care of. They were told it would be there for them. But younger Americans need to be responsible for themselves. It is time to end Social Security for the next generation.

If Congress really wanted to decrease bureaucracy and eliminate the tax burden, it would just cut out federal income tax. Collect taxes for 1999, pay off the national debt, return the borrowed money to the Social Security fund and eliminate all other programs and spending that are not necessary for national defense and defense of individual liberty.

Social Security taxes are collected separately from basic taxes on income. We could phase out the Social Security tax after we ended the base tax. The federal government needs to live on the other taxes it collects and initiate a budget that reflects its original purpose. We need to phase out Social Security and end all other biased programs. It is time to stop giving money to certain individuals and businesses at the expense of others. If Congress truly wanted to cut out programs, end unnecessary spending and allow wage earners to keep their money, it would end the federal tax on income immediately.

MARY NALL

Marble Hill