Letter: Beware GOP interest in Social Security

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 | 11:49 a.m.

Whatever are they trying to do? Steal the issue from the Democrats? Well, yes and no.

They are indeed trying to steal the issue but with a scheme that will eventually destroy the system as a guaranteed provider of retirement income by gradually turning it over to Wall Street scam artists, where most of the fund will be eaten up by brokers' commissions, fraudulent investment schemes and market "corrections" with no guarantee whatsoever. By that time it will be too late.

Not only will it affect future retirees but the gradual eroding of the fund will force huge cuts in benefits for current ones, or require a huge tax increase (guess which one a spineless, mean Congress will pursue?).

So let's not listen to the Wall Street shills in Congress and conservative think tanks and demand the present system be preserved, even with its supposed "warts," so both future and current retirees will be guaranteed a retirement income to young people. I say it's better to pay slightly higher payroll taxes while they are working and can afford it than end up with only a lottery ticket when they retire.

There are other solutions that do not require a crapshoot gamble and will not measurably inconvenience anybody, so why ask for a lot of trouble and grief?

"Partial privatization" is only the first step toward full privatization!

Dan Olivier