By David Eisenhower

People's Weekly World

The Draft Report of the White House Commission on Social Security is designed to sow the seeds of panic, according the Alan Bender, former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve. Not only is it biased, but it is thoroughly dishonest in a way that accords with the Bush administration's robber baron philosophy, recently expressed so candidly by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

"Able bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement and for that matter for their own health and medical needs."

First, the administration guts the ability of government to address critical social needs through a massive tax cut that benefit the new robber barons. Now, as described by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the administration has rigged its Social Security task force to facilitate a raid on the Social Security Trust Fund in a manner that would relieve the barons of paying their share of redeeming treasury bonds held in trust by the Social Security Administration.

The facts:

There is no Social Security crisis, only scare-mongering on behalf of those who would benefit from the privatization of retirement accounts, i.e. the barons;

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Studies the Trust Fund is rock solid. Because surpluses exceed expenditures the trust fund will grow from $1.2 trillion to more than $5 trillion between now and 2016;

According to the Economic Policy Institute the trust fund will continue to grow from 2016 through 2024 from interest on assets, estimated to be around $300 billion a year;

From 2025 through 2038 Social Security will meet its obligations to retired baby boomers by selling assets, which is why they were accumulated in the first place;

By 2038 the number of baby boomers will have greatly diminished and the accumulated trust fund surplus will have done its job;

The treasury securities in the trust fund are the safest financial investment in the world, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States;

If economic and workforce growth exceed modest expectations the trust fund will only continue to buildup surpluses. If there is a period of prolonged economic stagnation then other democratic solutions will become obvious. What are the fiscal implications of redeeming the trust fund securities? Will taxes have to be raised? Will government programs have to be slashed?

Will government debt have to increase? According to the Economic Policy Institute there is no foundation to these assertions, a conclusion based on the rosy budget forecasts of the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO projects federal budget surpluses through 2075, even using rather bleak assumptions.

Therefore, funds to redeem Social Security assets should be readily available. The work of the EPI and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities is designed to expose the big lie coming from Bush's Social Security Commission. And this is critically important at this moment.

It's also important to advance new demands with respect to Social Security and associated programs like Medicare. For example, rather than accepting the status quo, retirement age should be reduced. Benefits should be significantly increased, with women and low-wage workers getting proportionately more of the increase. Full health care and prescription drugs should be provided for through Medicare.

These demands could easily be afforded by removing the cap on income subject to Social Security tax, currently set at $80,400. For that matter, all incomes (dividends, capital gains, etc.) should be subject to Social Security tax.

In addition, employers' contributions to Social Security could be doubled and Bush's tax cuts should be rescinded and replaced by a real progressive income tax. Another way to free up trillions in revenues would be to scrap Star Wars and drastically reduce the war budget to meet the conditions of peace.

The struggle for Social Security is really about priorities. The robber barons have theirs. The priorities of the overwhelming majority of the people need to be articulated.