It's another beautifully written article that skirts around several subjects without really explaining why Moynihan is trapped. It does manage to get in some cute digs, however, calling the commission "Bush's Commission to Gut Social Security."

I recommend this article to everyone, but thought it worthwhile to clarify some of the points Mr. Greider failed to carry to completion.

First of all, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was one of the members of President Reagan's Greenspan Commission to Study Social Security along with Senators Bob Dole of Kansas and Claud Pepper of Florida. Bob Barr, the longtime head of the Social Security Administration was also on this committee along with several other experts on the supplemental retirement system.

The commission met for the entire year of 1982 and delivered its final report in January of 1983 without anything substantial to recommend as a "fix" for Social Security. The problem at the time was that Social Security had turned to its trust fund for operating cash seven years in a row. This was caused mostly by high unemployment reaching as much as 23 percent in my home town of Rockford, Illinois, during the early Eighties. It startedg back in the Carter administration when we had inflation, gas lines, gold prices reaching more than $900 an ounce, and many other troubles, not the least of which were embassy hostages held by the Iranians because we had sheltered the deposed Shah when the Iranians said he ran off with their treasury.

In other words, there simply wasn't enough money coming into the pay-as-you-go system to support all of the commitments to the retired and disabled and Social Security had to turn to its trust fund. They never had to draw more than two or three billion at a time or during a single year, but Congress hates it when this happens. They go bananas.

The reason Congress people go nuts when any entitlement must turn to its trust fund is simply that they lose money they planned to spend elsewhere, usually their pork barrel stuff. Since the trust holds nothing but "special obligation" UOUs, the real cash must be withdrawn from the Treasury's General Fund of taxpayer dollars. What they do and say then is much like it would be if your local bank started yelling and screaming because you withdrew from your savings account. Telling your friends and neighbors that you must be going under because you had the audacity to withdraw.

By the time the Greenspan Commission's final report was delivered the crisis was over. The nation was recovering and sufficient money was once again flowing into the Social Security account. But this didn't put out the fire to "fix" Social Security.

Jumping ahead a bit, on March 16, 1998, Senator Moynihan delivered a speech called "Social Security Saved" at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In this speech, he claimed that he and Bob Dole had hatched the idea of raising payroll taxes practically in the halls of Congress. As Moynihan put it:

"Then the shade of Frances Perkins intervened. On January 3, 1983, Robert J. Dole, Senate Majority Leader, published an article on the op-ed page of The New York Times entitled 'Reagan's Faithful Allies.' It seemed that many people thought Congressional Republicans weren't giving the President the support he needed and deserved. Not so, Senator Dole said, we are with the President and there are great things still to be done...That day I was being sworn in for a second term in the Senate. I had read the article and went up to Senator Dole on the Senate Floor and asked if he really thought that, why not try one last time? And he did think it. A year of listening to Myers had altered a lifetime of Republican dogma. We met the next day. The day after that Barber Conabe was brought in, a Republican who both understood and believed in Social Security. On January 15th, 13 days from our first exchange, agreement was reached at Blair House and the crisis passed. (In a November 2, 1997 interview on 'Meet The Press' Senator Dole cited this as his greatest accomplishment in his Senate career. And well he might.) Social Security was secure for the time being. Indeed, the payroll tax generated a considerable surplus which we have lived off ever since, and will continue to enjoy for yet a few years."

Later, in the same speech, Senator Moynihan said: "I have a bill entitled 'The Social Security Solvency Act of 1998' Senator Robert Kerrey and I will introduce in the Senate this week. Here are the specifics: 1. Reduce Payroll Taxes and Return to Pay-As-You-Go System with Optional Personal Accounts'"

The "Personal Accounts" Moynihan goes on to talk about would have allowed workers to either retain one percent of their payroll taxes or invest it in accounts the government would set up for them. He went on with tables to show how much workers could accumulate through what Moynihan calls "the magic of compound interest."

Does this sound like a man in a trap to you? At most, I think it's a man with guilt over what he had done and a man who may have begged to be part of the President's commission in order to repair the damage. Too bad it may also amount to putting the fox back in the chicken coop.

I am not in favor of President Bush's personal accounts either, but not for the same reasons as Mr. Greider or The Nation magazine. I think taking the surplus out of the hands of politicians is the right idea, but personal accounts are not.

The right idea but the wrong method sums up my feelings about Bush's personal accounts. I think it's something he borrowed from his father's Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees and wants to translate to 141 million working Americans. It's not the way large pension funds operate and will cause inflation with all the unnecessary paperwork and accounting expense involved. Most employers in the private sector do not have time to report each employee separately much less allow them to switch options at will.

The appropriate solution is so simple. 1) Stop stealing entitlement money, not just Social Security's but the surpluses from all entitlements. We've paid these taxes once and should not be forced to pay them again, plus interest. 2) Set up real trust funds where these surpluses can be invested anywhere except US Treasury securities the beneficiaries must redeem in one way or another. And 3) set these trusts up in the private sector managed by people who can be held accountable and are not above the law.

That's not difficult and costs are minimal. Both Moynihan and Greenspan claim that the 1983 action took Social Security off the pay-as-you-go system and put it on a "partial reserve" system. Trouble is, the reserve has been consistently stolen. Thus, Social Security has never left the pay-as-you-go method of operating. The first, most natural corrective action would seem to be to give the partial reserve system a chance, to see what could result from real investments instead of debt for the beneficiaries to buy back, with interest. We paid these taxes once. Why should we pay again?