The Trust Fund

Deficit and Election

Six days and a few more hours from now another election, my twenty- eighth, will have entered, literally, into the record book. Some of the records that will have been broken are - most money spent by all political parties combined, most money spent in a single contest by all parties combined, most money spent by any one candidate and I believe we are close to a record on how much mud was thrown by all political parties. I know it is pretty deep and is still rising.

Several e-mails have gone out, in the last ten days, to various news anchors protesting the way so many people on television, and other so-called news media, try to blame Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid for the most of our budget deficits. They usually call Social Security and Medicare an unfunded liability even though most retirees have worked for more than half of their lives and paid into the Social Security Trust Fund through the "Federal Insurance Contribution Act" (F.I.C.A.) commonly known as the payroll tax. Their employers also contributed to that fund in their names. Social Security and Medicare is an insurance that was set up to "help" take care of seniors in their times of need.

The following e-mail, as an example, was sent to a fairly well known business news anchor in response to one of her guest asserting that; most of our budget problems are caused by Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He said something like, "We must cut Social Security and Medicare back to a manageable level. Please tell him that The Social Security Trust Fund still has a surplus of several trillion dollars. By law, passed in 1990, that trust fund can not be used for lowering the deficit or spent as part of the general fund. If we took that surplus, which is invested in Special Government Securities, and put it in "Al Gore's Lockbox" there would be enough money to run Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid for several more years. Reform Social Security and Medicare, by all means, but quit blaming us for the budget problems.

One of the political problems with talking about Social Security is that no one wants to admit that all the money in the Social Security Trust Fund has been invested in Government Securities which, if turned into cash and put into a lockbox (figuratively speaking), would force our Government to borrow even more money, causing a larger deficit. Al Gore might not have been as stupid as some people thought. At least our money problems would have been brought out into the open.

This poem was written more than thirty years ago but is just as true now as it was then. "If love, as they say, makes the world go around / then I wonder what kind of love it could be / is it the love that I have for the things that are mine / or the love for the things that I see / love for a neighbor is one thing I know / that keeps this old world spinning round / for if you love someone else more than you love yourself / you have a love that won't let you down / but if you love things in life even though they cause strife / that's not the kind of love that we need / and if you really want to know what love is about / just get out your Bible and read.
If love, as they say, makes the world go around / then I know what kind of love that it is / it's the kind of love God has for His own / and we are all children of His / It's the kind of love Jesus has for us too / to die on the cross for our sins / now Heaven must be full of that same kind of love / and it's a place I'll be proud to be in."

The title, of course, is "Love". Thanks for your time,stay tuned - William