That single account is the Federal Employees Retirement System’s (FERS) Thrift Savings Plan Trust Fund where two million federal employees are allowed to invest in the stock market. It’s a privatized system operating through Barclay Bank of Great Britain to allow federal employees to invest up to 10 percent of their annual salaries in the Standard & Poors index of the top blue chip companies on the New York Stock Exchange. What’s more, the first three percent of anything an employee puts into this trust fund annually is matched dollar-for-dollar by the government, with your tax money of course. The next two percent is matched fifty cents on the dollar for an annual maximum of four percent in matching funds. For the last four years, their return on investment has averaged 28 percent.

The other 163 trust funds are all debit accounts for entitlements, more perks or hush money for federal employees, or donations by philanthropists like Carnegie who wanted every city in America to have a library. None of these accounts hold any real cash whatsoever. They are stuffed with nonmarketable bonds that the federal government can pass out like candy from Santa Claus if it so desires. For instance, if the President wants to rebuild Kosovo, just open a Rebuild Kosovo Trust Fund, pour in some “special obligation” non-negotiable Treasury bonds and the real money will come out of the Treasury’s General Fund of taxpayer dollars as needed in Kosovo.

Of all of these negative accounts, the entitlement trust funds are the largest, with Social Security leading the pack. While entitlements are supposed to provide services for specific things you have been taxed separately for, the real extra cash that you paid is long gone. It was labeled a "surplus" and spent willy-nilly by Congress and the Administration on whatever they wanted. They spent it as though they owned it.

To account for the money "borrowed" in this underhanded way, the federal government provides nonmarketable bonds that it throws into the black hole bowels of trust funds. They call it an “investment” in the future or “strengthening” the life of entitlements like Social Security because there are more and more of these promissory notes for you or your children to redeem in the future. Any real money will come out of the General Fund of annual tax dollars collected as future need arises. A form of slick double taxation that I call the “Pay-It-Again, Sam” plan.

What’s more, they also pour annual interest into the pit at the rate of almost 7 percent annually. The Treasury figures this interest rate with a five year model of interest rates paid on legitimate bonds, notes, bills and savings bonds sold on the open market to investors. It’s almost always greater than the current long term bond interest rate. Debit on top of debit. The debt just gets deeper.

As of the close of fiscal 2000, which happened at the end of September 30th of this year, the Social Security Trust Fund pit has exceeded $1 trillion:

This drain on money in the General Fund, money politicians had earmarked or promised elsewhere, was enough to make Washington go bananas. Congressmen were running around Washington, like pregnant foxes in a forest fire or Chicken Little, screaming about how Social Security was going under, about to fold.

Hiring Alan Greenspan away from his private practice, in 1982 they set up the Greenspan Commission to study the Social Security problem and what to do about it. Please notice, that the Washington borrowholics were not concerned about citizens paying taxes twice. They were only worried about their annual budget plans being taken away from them. Losing any of the funds they wanted to blow on pork barrel and banking ventures.

Even though the unemployment problem had leveled out and was about to start rising, in March of 1983, one month after the Greenspan Commission had delivered its year long analysis of Social Security, Congress passed and Reagan signed a bill raising FICA taxes to 12.4 percent and as much as 15 percent for the self employed. In what was one of the fastest bills passed, Social Security was taken off the pay-as-you-go system and put on a “partial reserve” system, a promising system if, and only if, the reserve is invested wisely. Unfortunately, Social Security has not been invested wisely or in anything other than becoming their greatest slush fund.

In November of 1997, after government shutdowns in ‘95-’96 pushed by nasty Republicans, the government finally passed the Balanced “Unified” Budget Act. They did this only because they could forecast theft from entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, gas taxes, airport and airways, and dozens of others reaching multiples in excess of any deficit ever run by the government.

In 1993, when I started keeping track of the debt, entitlements accounted for about 17 percent of the national debt. Today, they are close to 40 percent of the $5.7 trillion national debt, and growing. The debt went up again in fiscal 2000. But it only rose by $18 billion.

Not that it matters one iota in terms of what you are going to be forced to pay, but the Clinton Administration has actually been paying down one of the two parts of the national debt. It’s true, they are throwing surpluses against the debt.

Here’s how it works:

The “federal” side of the national debt (represented in red, above) is really all trust fund accounting. It represents the amount of money stolen from entitlements, spent elsewhere, and now transformed into nonmarketable bonds, plus interest. These are promissory notes that you and your children will pay off, just like you are the only ones capable of paying off the entire national debt with your tax dollars. But the government gives you this debt to replace the money they stole and they pay interest on it with more bogus bonds. None of it cost the government a cent. And you would, in fact, be better off if these bogus bonds simply disappeared. At least then you would not have a second payment to make, plus interest.

Please notice that the “public” debt (blue) is going down while the trust fund “federal” side (red) is increasing. This is criminal money laundering plain and simple. Moving debt from one credit card to another only makes it sound legitimate. Only an immune federal government could get away with it. Anyone else would end up in jail.

Like a car dealer, this is also the rebate Al Gore promises you in a tax refund. Give Al $100 billion, and he’ll give you back $7 billion, cash in hand, from the interest he saves by reducing the “public” (blue) side of his debt. A debt, by the way, that he and his cronies ran up since 1980 to beat the Russians into the ground in the Cold War.

If you like being ripped-off this way, then definitely go out and vote for Al Gore. He’s promising you more of the same.