Reply #25: LA Times

[dweller]

March 6, 2005



Real Bonds, and Worries, Draw Interest
The Social Security trust fund and its ample IOUs are key in the debate over altering the system.

By Joel Havemann, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Yes, Mary Platz, there really is a Social Security trust
fund. You can find it — about $1.7-trillion worth of special-issue Treasury
bonds — in a Bureau of the Public Debt safe in Parkersburg, W.Va.

Platz, 78, of Mableton, Ga., was one of many people who complained to their
representative in Congress at meetings around the country in recent weeks, that
the government was squandering its surplus Social Security funds on other
federal programs.

"We need to do something to keep from taking money out of Social Security," Platz told Rep.Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.).

The trust fund has become an integral part of the debate over President Bush's proposal to allow
workers to divert some of their payroll taxes into private retirement
accounts invested at their discretion. Everyone agrees, as Platz complained, that the
government has been spending money from the fund — money raised
through the Social Security tax and that is
intended for future retirees.
But debate has escalated over whether the government has the
ability — or even a reliable intent — to repay
that money to the retirement system. As
Bush battles his critics over his plan to
restructure Social Security, both sides are
characterizing the trust fund and the IOUs it
holds in sharply different ways.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-trust6mar06,0,5665245.story?coll=la-home-headlines

dp