My Senator Jim Talent responds on Social Security.

[newportdadde]

I recently sent in an email to my Senators here in Missouri both RWs Bond and Talent. One senator Jim Talent... responded with the following on my statment to not tamper with Social Security:

Dear Mr. XXXXXXX:

Thank you for contacting me with your views on Social
Security. I appreciate the time you have taken to share your views
with me, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

I also believe that Congress must act to strengthen Social
Security and protect its long-term viability for our children and
grandchildren. Social Security is a system that has worked well for
tens-of-thousands of people, including my parents, and we need to
make certain it continues to work well.

Today, there are 47 million people collecting Social
Security benefits. These benefits are funded by payroll taxes
collected from 154 million working Americans. Because there are
more than three workers for each beneficiary, Social Security is
running a surplus. This surplus is invested in government bonds.

As the 78 million baby boomers retire, there will be only
two workers for each beneficiary and Social Security will begin
running deficits. Projections from the Social Security Trustees
show that in 2018 the government will have to use general revenue
funds to pay benefits, as the amount of money paid out in benefits
will be greater than the amount taken in through the payroll tax. It
is estimated that by 2020, the government will need, in 2004
dollars, $56 billion from the general fund to cover Social Security
benefits. This figure is expected to increase to $256 billion by
2030. Unless Congress takes steps soon, Social Security benefits
will have to be drastically reduced for the baby boom generation.

We cannot continue to ignore this problem. I supported
President Bush's decision to create a bipartisan commission on
Social Security. The Commission has issued its final report and
Congress has begun to review its recommendations. Among those
recommendations is the creation of individual savings accounts.
They would allow us to capture the Social Security surplus and
actually save it, so that the principle would grow and help fund
future benefits. I have supported this idea in the past, but I am not
wedded to it and in fact I'm about at the point where I'll consider
anything that makes common sense and actually addresses the
problem.

Developing a plan to protect and improve Social Security
will be a complex and challenging task. It will require the support
of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Any plan that I
would support must protect Social Security for current retirees and
provide for future retirees. Those workers who have paid into the
system have a right to collect benefits once they become eligible to
do so. Unless something is done, millions of people will be
destitute when they retire. We owe it to them to make a concerted
attempt to protect their future.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If I may be of further
assistance, please don't hesitate to write or call.

[AllegroRondo]

1. So many words to say absolutely nothing

[Cocoa]

2. translation

fuck you, I'm with Bush.

[newportdadde]

3. So true...

I've never been a Jim Talent fan as I always felt he never had a 'real job'. This was my first letter to my Senators and my representative(Sam Graves). Basically I think I just got told take a leap Missouri is red now we don't need you.

[Darkhawk32]

4. Yup, as a Missouri citizen, that just about sums it up as it regards to...

Jim Talent.

He supposedly beat a very popular Jean Carnahan in 2002 in a special election.

He was most likely Diebolded in by, then Secretary of State, now Governor, Matt Blunt.

[Ganja Ninja]

5. This is an out an out lie!

"Projections from the Social Security Trustees
show that in 2018 the government will have to use general revenue
funds to pay benefits."

That is a deliberate lie. The payroll tax will not produce a surplus after 2018 but there is still an enormous trust fund that will pay the balance of Social Security outlays until 2052.

[IrateCitizen]

6. Completely fallacious argument

Social Security HAS been running a surplus for many years now. And when its surplus was invested in Treasury Bonds, that meant that the surplus was then seized for other appropriations by Congress.

Talent is worried about going into the general fund for SS benefits. However, where has he been while SS surplus funds have been misappropriated in the general fund?

This is where his argument really falls apart:

As the 78 million baby boomers retire, there will be only
two workers for each beneficiary and Social Security will begin
running deficits. Projections from the Social Security Trustees
show that in 2018 the government will have to use general revenue
funds to pay benefits, as the amount of money paid out in benefits
will be greater than the amount taken in through the payroll tax.

Wrong. The money used to pay out benefits at this time will NOT be taken from the general fund, they will be taken from the SURPLUS that social security has been running ever since its inception! Talent acts as if this surplus was the government's to do with whatever it wanted. It was not -- it was invested in Treasury Bonds with the idea that those uncashed bonds were still the property of the social security fund. All that is required at this point, should nothing be done, is for SS to start dipping into the surplus that should have been set aside for a time just like this.

It is estimated that by 2020, the government will need, in 2004
dollars, $56 billion from the general fund to cover Social Security
benefits. This figure is expected to increase to $256 billion by
2030. Unless Congress takes steps soon, Social Security benefits
will have to be drastically reduced for the baby boom generation.

Once again, Social Security is not "taking" money from the general fund, it is simply reappropriating what belonged to it to begin with by cashing in those Treasury Bonds -- no different than if you or I decided to cash in our IOU from the federal government by cashing our Treasury bonds.

Finally, his dates are WAY off. The most conservative estimates by the CBO have shown that, if absolutely NOTHING is done, there will not have to be any benefits cuts until 2042. Once again, that's not a bankruptcy date -- that's simply the date at which it is believed that benefits being paid out will finally outpace the amount of money in the fund. However, it will not be "broke" at this time, because it will STILL be a system in which the money being paid in will be directly used for benefits.

In short, your Senator is full of shit, and should be told as much. Bob Somerby has been doing some great work at deconstructing the Social Security scam at http://www.dailyhowler.com. If you want to send a detailed response to your Senator, or perhaps write an op-ed in response to his letter, that's an excellent place to start for already-mined and sorted data.