We've been playing this game for years. It started in earnest when Bill Clinton told us there were 76 million baby-boomers about to wreck havoc on a supplemental retirement system that has worked almost perfectly for some 60 years. But we had better "fix the roof while the sun is shining" because the system has never been faced with anything like this enormous fairy tale. Booga-booga.

We should have told him to stick his story where the sun doesn't shine, but he was our President, our leader, a man elected to office by the will of the people. The team captain. And it was an auspicious occasion. The State of the Union address. Who could doubt that weeks of preparation didn't go into the presentation and the facts of his speech? You would have to be crazy to think that he missed a decimal point.

From that point forward, we've had salted photo-op town hall meetings, confessions from the guilty, "lack"-box proposals that cleared the House almost unanimously only to die in the Senate, and dozens of think-tanks working furiously to solve the simplest of problems.

The solution is now, was then, and ever shall be—stop stealing the surplus money. Either don't collect it at all or invest it properly in something that doesn't double tax the contributors, with interest no less. It's wrong to invest in securities redeemable solely by the people who contribute surpluses in the first place, their heirs or offspring, at dates yet to be determined or at least after the whistle blows for the end of the debt laundering game.

We, the people, do not provide this entitlement money under false pretenses. But the government takes it, pretends to "borrow" it, and then spends our retirement, health, and other entitlement money wherever it pleases. All while not tightening their own belts one iota.

But we're only following the law, cry the lawmakers. A law that's full of holes and should have been amended long ago. A law that goes on to say "or anything else" that's backed by the full faith and credit of the United States the way that we the people back banks. A law that would permit investment in hula-hoops.

How difficult and how expensive is it to set up real trust funds in the private sector? To turn entitlement surpluses, the proceeds, the gate, the profits, over to elected or appointed investors whom we could hold accountable and who do not consider themselves above the law? All while protecting our government from the influence of evil doers, complicity, and the temptation to do evil deeds.

The answer to such a complex problem cannot be that simple. There is much too much at stake in this game. Such a solution would be a turnover. A loss of the ball.

If you really want to stall, if you really want to drag out the game while raking in more than $460 million a day, turn the ball over to your second string. Appoint a committee.

President George W. Bush once said that fixing Social Security was an executive decision, and he was right. But then he appointed a Committee to Strengthen Social Security and today that committee is conducting more grass roots town hall meetings. All of this is equivalent to the captain of a ship going down into the galley to ask the cook what course to steer.

Hey, chefs deal in "courses" don't they? If you want to talk about use of the English language, ask the Beltway Bandits about "trust" or "lock-boxes" or better yet "Intragovernmental Holdings." See what you get. You need a "program" to tell the players and the "name of the game." You need Richard Lederer, not David Letterman.