SOCIAL SECURITY: MORE TALK, OR REAL ACTION?

In its draft report, the latest presidential commission has taken a look at the future of the Social Security system and has come up with little that we didn't already know.

As previous commissions have reported, there won't be enough money at some future point to pay Social Security benefits we have grown to expect. Exactly when the taxes being paid in will be exceeded by the monthly checks going out keeps changing. The latest estimate is that Social Security payments will exceed payroll taxes starting in 2016. And if the Social Security Trust Fund is used up, it's estimated there will be enough cash to cover benefits until 2038.

But the trust fund is a slippery eel. Excess Social Security cash has been invested in government bonds. It would seem logical to use these bonds to keep those checks going out when the need for cash exceeds the amount coming in from payroll taxes. Not so. In order for the Social Security Administration to get back the cash it has lent to the federal government, the federal government would have to raise the cash. The federal government doesn't have the cash to pay back the Social Security system, because the cash it borrowed has been spent.

And therein lies the problem with Social Security.

Washington politicians, regardless of political stripe, have no problem dreaming up new ways to spend our money. Look at the growth in federal spending. In fact, our elected officials have so many new ways to spend our cash that they aren't content with spending just the cash we send them to run the government. They find ways to spend even more than that. So they borrow. They borrow from taxpayers who invest in government bonds and treasury notes. And they borrow from the Social Security Administration Trust Fund.

There is so much borrowing, in fact, that there simply is no cash on hand to repay Social Security.

And what of the surplus? Isn't there money in the federal surplus to repay Social Security? Consider this: The surplus includes all the cash the federal government has borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. In reality, that trust fund is counted twice: first as surplus, and then as debt.

What Social Security doesn't need is more political debate about surpluses and about protecting the Social Security Trust Fund in a lockbox and about whether or not the government can keep its promises to aging Americans.

What Social Security does need is elected officials who will do their jobs. That means getting serious about runaway government spending that is dependent, like a heroin addict, on cash that rightfully belongs to future Social Security recipients. That would mean ending the game of using Social Security as a political issue and instead finding ways to meet the future needs of Social Security.

The latest presidential commission says the solution is to reduce benefits, increase taxes or borrow more money. Democrats say the latest report is nothing more than a political springboard for President Bush's plan to allow younger workers to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in the stock market. Republicans say the report is nothing more than a launching pad for Democrats who want to increase taxes.

So tell us something new.

The future of Social Security hinges on one thing: action. Unless the people we elect are willing to stop fussing and start doing, we can look forward to another presidential commission in 2005. Guess what it will say.