This column lies from beginning to end. Money in Social Security is not invested in creditworthy enterprises. It is used to retire current obligations in exchange for an IOU, check-kiting, basically. Nor are your Social Security funds available on demand in the amount you deposited. And you can't negotiate for a better rate of return. And I'm not awware of any bank that will shoot you if you decline to deposit your money with them.
I'd like to see Mrs. Barnhart and Sen. Corzine debate this on a prime time network news show. There is so much hysteria, fearmongering, and deliberate misinformation being put forth by Democrats in order to perpetuate their most effective vote-buying program.
If people only knew how much better and probabaly safer their retirement money would be apart from Social Security, we'd probably see 95% of Americans opting for private retirement accounts. It would probably be closer to 99% percent for people under 30, none of which I know believes they'll see a dime from Social Security.