Posted on 02/27/2005 6:25:32 PM PST by w6ai5q37b
Social Security: Ideas, no solutions Chocola town hall sessions decidedly different.
There are a lot of ideas on how to save Social Security.
What 2nd District Rep. Chris Chocola, R-Bristol, sought in back-to-back town hall meetings in Elkhart and South Bend Saturday was a solution to the problem.
He's still looking.
Chocola, who predicted that Congress will vote by the end of this year on a Social Security bill, laid out what he said is essentially a cash-flow problem in both town hall sessions.
Beginning in 2018, with the first of the Baby Boomer generation already well into retirement, Social Security will begin paying out more than it takes in from payroll taxes.
By 2042, Chocola said, the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted and unable to meet its obligations. unless steps are taken now.
During the South Bend session, Marty Wolfson, an associate professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame, suggested that the solution lies in eliminating the current $90,000 salary cap on Social Security taxes paid by workers.
Quoting from a memo issued by the Social Security Administration, Wolfson said elimination of the cap "would completely solve the problem" until 2079.
"If it was that easy, it would have been done already," Chocola responded.
In a later interview, Chocola said taking away the cap would extend the surplus until 2025, seven years longer than is now expected.
The problem, said Chocola, is there's still no cash. You're putting more IOUs in the trust fund, but there's still no cash."
That's because Congress has routinely borrowed money from the Trust Fund to meet current spending needs and issued bonds to cover the debt.
Although the idea of a Social Security "lockbox" was a hot topic during the 2000 presidential debates, there is no such thing.
"There is no big bank account to put money into," said Chocola, noting that if the government had not borrowed the money from Social Security it would have borrowed it elsewhere, and the money would still have been spent.
Throughout the day, Saturday, Chocola suggested that allowing people to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal accounts is at least one part of the final solution on Social Security.
One advantage, he said later, is that by allowing people to save some of their money in personal accounts, "the government can't spend it."
However, Chocola conceded that personal accounts won't solve the solvency problem and it "will take a package of ideas."
The two sessions were as different as night and day.
The Elkhart meeting, held in the city council chambers of the Elkhart Municipal Building, was quiet, orderly and polite, with the 60 or so persons on hand taking turns asking questions and listening to Chocola's response.
By contrast, the South Bend session, held at the downtown branch of the St. Joseph County Public Library, was a raucous affair, with many of the 100 or so people who attended shouting questions and insults, talking over each other and still bubbling with questions when it was all over.
One gentleman was so angry when Chocola indicated the hour-long session was coming to an end and wouldn't be extended that he walked out.
Chocola said later that MoveOn.org, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that targeted the congressman in a series of television ads earlier this month, may have played a role in the demeanor of the South Bend session.
Chocola said he wasn't suggesting that MoveOn.org encouraged people to be disruptive, "but they suggested things to say."
Chocola aide Brooks Kochvar contended that MoveOn.org sent out e-mails with instructions on how to disrupt a town hall meeting.
"That's not true," said MoveOn.org Director Tom Mattzie.
Mattzie said his organization let its members know about various town hall meetings being held by members of Congress across the country, and encouraged civility, not incivility.
Chocola said the Elkhart meeting was typical of the sessions he has held throughout the district this week, but the South Bend session was unique.
Wolfson said following the meeting that the problem is not a Social Security problem as much as it is a federal budget problem.
"The government needs to pay back the workers' taxes it has borrowed," Wolfson said.
Ed Cohen, a Granger resident, praised Chocola for having the meeting.
Cohen added that it is "disingenuous" for Chocola to talk about fiscal responsibility and a realistic budget and yet not include in that budget the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The last of the town hall sessions will be held Monday in Kokomo.
Staff writer James Wensits:
jwensits@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6353
MoveOn=Thugs-R-Us
I hope they (don't) try and disrupt a meeting I'm at.
I dont want any social security reform. I want the system to die a slow and painful death in 2042. Any "reform" bill will not address how we deal with people who may lose money by investing poorly. There will be no language in the bill exempting the govt from bailing them out. That will be a humongous drag on our economic system that will collapse the economy.
There was something on Fox, either last night or today, about Sen. Grassley having held a number of town meetings in Iowa and finding the opposition to President Bush's proposals very well-organized...apparently as people were waiting in line at the microphones to ask questions, people from some organization were coming up and giving them questions to ask. I don't know if they were from the DNC, AARP, or MoveOn.org
However, we can reform it now - finding ways to move to private accounts and some (however limited) control, or we can wait for the lib/dems to "reform" it - which means tax increases and no personal choice. Yours (letting it die) will never be an option. As soon as Dems convince the electorate that there is no crisis, it will be a crisis again when they gain control of the WH.
These people aren't about working toward solutions for this country and her people. They are about disruption, anarchy, and dominance. They really don't give a rip about America. Yes, I question their patriotism.
I am not saying that it is not a crisis. The best reform will be to exempt it completely for people under 25, and then on a sliding scale until you are 50. If the Congress doesn't include provision exempting from lawsuits companies that will be providing this service, that will be a big mistake.
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