They’re at it again, only this time they’re winning. The fight to roll back Social Security is winning support of most of the Republicans and some of the conservative Democrats. If you hire enough think tanks to write articles and get pundits on the mainstream airwaves, you’re bound to get most of the low-information voters to parrot your words. They say that in order to fix the deficit, we need to make cuts in Social Security.
Social Security cannot borrow money, so how does it contribute to the deficit? It doesn’t. It has a $2.5 trillion surplus. The government is the one that borrows from the trust fund to give tax cuts to the rich. When the government borrows money from the surplus it leaves Treasury notes, the same Treasury notes that China receives when they loan us money.
What does contribute to the deficit is borrowing from China to give tax breaks to multinational corporations. According to the Government Accountability Office, each year from 1998 to 2005 an average of 68 percent of the foreign companies doing business in the U.S. paid zero federal income taxes. During the same period 66 percent of U.S. domestic corporations paid no federal income taxes to the federal government.
Most people have been paying into this program all of their working lives. Don’t let them alter this program. Write or call (calling these days is more effective) your U.S. senators and representatives and tell them not to support any changes to Social Security.
Pat Rainsberger
Snohomish
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