We the taxpayers of the United States of America are buying debt with our excess entitlement payments just as though we walked into the U.S. Treasury, plunked down a barrel of money, and said: "Here, give me some debt."

Unlike legitimate borrowing permitted under the Constitution, this debt is awarded without the express consent, contract, or in many cases even the knowledge of the lenders.

This debt, almost 43 percent of the national debt, is therefore illegal.

As of the close of fiscal 2003, the Social Security Trust Funds (Federal Old Age & Survivors Insurance trust fund and the Federal Disability Insurance trust fund) hold approximately 22 percent of the national debt.

This debt, in the amount of more than $1.5 trillion, is represented by special obligation nonmarketable bonds, sometimes referred to as IOUs, placed in the debit accounts when the money was taken and spent elsewhere.

Since these bonds can be redeemed only with taxpayer money from the U.S. Treasury's General Account, current taxes or legitimately borrowed money, they should more appropriately be referred to as UOUs and amount to double taxation with interest added.

In July and August of 2001, after Paul O'Neill the Secretary of the Treasury publicly announced that there were no viable assets in the Social Security Trust Funds, every economist called upon echoed the same mantra. If Social Security must ever turn to its trust fund, the poor souls in Washington would be faced with the tough decision to 1) raise taxes 2) borrow enormous sums in the public's name 3) cut benefits or any combination thereof.

These three points are the normal, everyday, standard methods for the government to raise and manage revenue. It is nothing new. But it does carry the crucial implication that the trust fund's holdings are meaningless, of no value to the public.

This is fraud of the highest order.

If entitlement trust funds are fraudulent, then 42 percent of the national debt is fraudulent and could be eliminated without consequence to anyone except the elected officials and bureaucrats in Washington.

The entire "Intragovernmental Holdings" portion of the national debt is fraudulent. Ninety-three percent of this category of debt is nothing more than debit black hole accounts belonging to 24 entitlements including Social Security. The other seven percent are perks the Beltway Bandits have set up for themselves.

Fraud of this magnitude makes Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, and other private sector companies and individuals under investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities & Exchange Commission look like babes in the woods, girl scouts eating some of their own cookies, minor criminals.

It also makes the United States of America more than the world's greatest debtor nation. It makes our elected officials and lawmakers the greatest hypocrites in the world, borrowholics and scam artists who at the very least should be thrown out of office. There is not one of them defending the public's property or sweat equity.