Political expediency ignores needed fix for federal deficit

By Mark Singletary The Daily Record Newswire I woke up earlier this week and headed straight for the kitchen. Man, I needed a cup of coffee. Lo and behold, there wasn't any coffee in the cupboard. I whined a bit, pondered my situation and fretted. But I still had no coffee. Then I decided to do something about it. I got dressed, found my car keys and drove to the grocery store. They had coffee, but it seemed very expensive. I decided not to get coffee. I bought some decaf tea, instead. I wanted coffee, but bought tea. My body needed some caffeine, so I bought decaf. I don't claim to be very smart, certainly not a good problem solver or shopper. But at least I had something hot to drink. While the comparison might not be obvious, Congress and President Obama are doing the same thing in Washington, D.C. No, not with coffee or tea; they're making their mistakes with Social Security contributions and the national debt. As a nation, we are facing some tough economic challenges: not enough people have jobs and not enough tax revenue to satisfy the federal budget. There are two economic forces at work: too many middle-class workers without jobs and too many families that can't seem to make ends meet. When our leaders hear about American families in trouble, they are eager to help. When the problem is not enough money, politicians seem to be at their worst. They just don't seem to understand the complexity of the problem or basic accounting principles. I'm not going to deny there are problems. I'm not even going to argue that giving American workers a short term break on their taxes won't really help. Any help for American families seems benevolent. But I am going to argue about where the tax relief comes from makes a difference. Every plan I've heard suggests that not collecting withholding from employers and employees for Social Security and Medicare benefits is the proper place to give tax relief for American workers. That is a very bad plan. While it sounds nice to say that most families will have an extra thousand dollars or so to spend, it doesn't make sense to defer funding for the national retirement system. This is a general revenue problem that should be solved with a general revenue solution. The country can't continue to honor commitments to retirees and Medicare beneficiaries if funding for those trust funds is interrupted or suspended. It's just as bad as buying tea when I need coffee, maybe worse. Social Security is supposed to work like a private pension plan. Workers and employers contribute a set percentage of wages each pay period, and those funds are used to pay benefits for retirees and fund medical payments for Medicare eligible individuals. When the system was first started, there were many workers for each retiree. Having money on hand to fund the obligations of the retirement program was not an issue. In fact, there was so much money available that the federal government started borrowing from the retirement trust to fund operations of a general nature. As time passed, our government grew more and more accustomed to spending money it didn't have, and deficit spending became acceptable. We borrowed from anyone who was willing to lend. American bond investors had successfully funded World War II, after all. The world has grown accustomed to buying our bonds. We, as a nation, have become too comfortable with deficits. Now those deficits are big enough to threaten the solvency of the federal government while American families are hurting, too. Congress compounds the problem when their solution is more political than economic. While it's noble to want to help middle-class families, it's dead wrong to continue to manipulate the Social Security trust fund for short-term political gain. Leaders in Congress should be able to understand then explain that undermining the solvency of Social Security really doesn't satisfy the needs of the federal budget, nor American families. Published: Thu, Dec 15, 2011