Truly hopeless:

On Thursday's News Hour there was a segment on Fixing Social Security. Two guests were invited to discuss the issue, "Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget at the New America Foundation; and Kenneth Apfel, public affairs professor at the University of Texas -- he was the commissioner of the Social Security administration from 1997 to 2001."

Here is a brief excerpt: (emp add)

MAYA MAC GUINEAS: ... they built up programmatic surpluses and they saved them into Social Security trust funds ...

... by saving all those additional monies that we brought in through the Social Security system in a government trust fund, where the dollars end up getting co-mingled with other government money and inevitably allow people in Congress to feel like the money there's to spend and they spend it, the money doesn't really get saved.

The Social Security trust funds are bonds. They are not co-mingled with other government money (what ever that means). Now, let's see what a former Social Security administrator has to say in reaction: (emp add)

RAY SUAREZ: Professor, did that create part of today's situation, that idea that you could use that money that was collected in excess of what was being paid in benefits?

KENNETH APFEL: Well, actually the changes in 1983 were incredibly important, a very big step in the right direction that put the system on a path to be resolved for about 40 years, maybe even 50 years. That's not a bad solution; I think it was one of the best things that the Congress did during the 1980s was to make a big step in this direction.

There's another step we have to take, there's another whole round of issues that need to be resolved with Social Security, another round generally on the same order of magnitude as were made back in 1983. I tend to think that we're going to need to see some changes get made in both the tax side and the spending side, and Maya and I generally agree with that; I don't think these have to be the least bit dramatic.

And I think that building some trust funds I think is a good thing for the Social Security system, so that basically there's some reserves there when people need them.

No rebuttal whatsoever to the notion that the Social Security surplus was (a) co-mingled with other government funds, or (b) that the funds were being "used".

Mr. Apfel is a disgrace.

posted by Quiddity at 12/17/2004 09:07:00 AM