..........On top of this debt, the Reagan administration turned Social Security's relatively small excess trust fund account into a large slush fund for government coffers. Since the Greenspan Commission recommended, and in 1983 Congress quickly adopted a plan to raise FICA taxes way beyond what is needed to provide for the retired and disabled, the federal government has had a viable source of extra cash for the budget. Until recently, they referred to this as "off budget" revenue. Now, they just call it "stealing" or "plundering" Social Security. Last year, fiscal 1999, this windfall bonus was about $80 billion. This year, fiscal 2000, it will be close to $100 billion.
..........And Social Security isn't the only place where they steal money meant for something else. They steal from Medicare, gas taxes, airport and airline taxes, and many other entitlements. Social Security just happens to be the largest source to plunder, thanks to Alan Greenspan.
..........What's more, the federal government could do this with almost any entitlement trust fund they set up. The Greenspan plan would work if it were applied to Medicare or it would work against a new tobacco tax collected to pay medical bills caused by cigarettes. This method of extortion just happened to be tried with Social Security first.
..........Every time the government steals entitlement money, they leave promissory notes behind. These notes go against the national debt and mean that the public, the very same people who paid this excess in the first place, is now responsible for someday replacing it. It's double taxation plain and simple, the crime of the century. Distrust funds currently account for 34 percent of the national debt or a total of more than $1.9 trillion that you or your children owe largely due to this theft and misuse of your payments.
..........To the government's credit, running a deficit by honest borrowing has virtually stopped. The first two years of the Clinton administration were just as bad, if not worse, than the Reagan-Bush years but it became internationally unpopular to run deficits. By 1995 we were having arguments over "balancing the budget" and a strong Republican stand by Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole not to raise the debt ceiling from $4.9 trillion unless the administration went along with the republican "contract with America." This is what caused the shutdowns of 1995-96 and even brought fearful talk of possible government default on Treasury securities.
..........By 1997, we had finally resolved an agreement that set the year 2002 as the date to accomplish a balanced budget. The agreement became law. It's the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and was passed by an overwhelming majority in Congress. At the same time, John Kasich, House Budget Committee Chairman, slipped in a provision that raised the national debt limit to $5.9 trillion. Without discussion or argument, this too became law, making certain there would not be any hullabaloo when we hit the $5.5 trillion mark set in 1996. Just think, in the last four years the national debt has risen more than $750 billion.
..........Knowing full well that a balanced budget agreement would eventually be reached, a newly re-elected President Clinton stepped to the podium and, in his inaugural address of January, 1997, announced that Social Security was "in trouble." It needed to be saved. We needed to "fix the roof while the sun is shining." He used the preposterous argument that "76 million baby-boomers" were looming on the horizon in order to frighten the public and to promise devoting the entire year to public forums and a search for solutions. From that point forward, almost two years have been devoted to arguments over how to save Social Security, an organization that doesn't require saving from anything except the plundering of the federal government itself.
......................................................Where are we now?
..........In May of this year, Congress almost unanimously passed (416 to 12) H.R. 1259, the so-called Safety Deposit or Lock-Box bill. Flawed though it is, the central idea is not to touch Social Security money—not to steal the excess FICA taxes collected in the year 2000. Discussions on the House floor and recorded in the daily record would stand up in any court of law as confessions to the crime of stealing entitlement monies; i.e., embezzlement or the misappropriation of funds.
..........The lock-box bill has been in the Senate for more than five months now and may die there. The reason it has gone no further is that our illustrious Senators are waiting to see if it's necessary to steal this money again in fiscal 2000 before passing this bill, putting it into effect next year, or just letting it die a natural death on the shelf.
..........Trouble is that the House and Senate Budget Committees, Finance Committees, Appropriations Committees, GAO and all others who work on the budget continuously all considered Social Security as part of their "off budget" revenue for fiscal 2000. This time they counted on close to $100 billion from Social Security alone when they made up their budget.
..........Now, if they don't steal the Social Security "surplus" as usual, if they truly keep their grubby hands off it, then they're left with their backs against the wall and only two possible ways out of the situation:

.....................1. Clinton and the democrats want to "raise the money" lost by
.........................giving up Social Security's booty. Clinton has proposed two ways
........................ to do this: (a) raise income taxes, or (b) put a fifty-cent tax on.every
........................ pack of cigarettes sold in the United States. The latter would be on
........................ top of the huge tax every state has already levied against cigarettes,
........................ supposedly to cover medical expenses caused by smoking but seeming
........................ to produce the same sort of "surplus" or windfall bonus that the federal
........................government has.enjoyed from Social Security for the last sixteen years.

.....................2. The republicans want to cut discretionary spending across the board.
........................ They want to take whatever percentage Social Security's money would
......................... have been to the total budget and subtract that percentage from each and
......................... every element of education, agriculture, defense, health and all other
..........................elements of discretionary spending. This is the more normal way to make
......................... major cuts to budgets. There are no judgement calls, no elimination of
..........................wasteful or pork barrel plans. Everything is cut equally.

..........Would anyone like to bet on which way they will eventually decide? Too bad Jimmy the Greek isn't around to tell us what the odds would be on stealing the Social Security surplus again.
..........And don't forget it was just a few weeks ago that the republicans were pushing for a tax cut of almost $800 billion spread over the next ten years. A tax cut that everyone knew Clinton was going to veto. But supposing he hadn't vetoed it. How would they ever have afforded such a tax break when they can't even manage their annual budget without robbing Social Security and other entitlements?
..........Obviously, the tax cut idea was nothing more than election year posturing now spread over almost two years. The republicans can say that they tried but the democrats squashed them.
..........Is there really any point to voting any of these people back into office? Do you hear any candidates who seem to recognize the problems outlined above?