Trust fund focus obscures real issues

Based on John Herman's response to my April 8 letter "Truth about Social Security and Medicare," there appears to be some misunderstanding about what I was trying to say.

My only point was that everyone -- elected officials, the media and the public -- should stop the charade and phony fear mongering that our future Social Security and Medicare benefits are somehow threatened by the projected deficit in the these respective trust funds.

Only then can we intelligently deal with the issues of whether we will someday need to either trim these entitlement benefits or increase some kind of taxes.

Mr. Herman and likely others seem to think that I am or was objecting to the past and current use of the excess of Social Security and Medicare taxes over benefits paid, the source of the trust funds, for general fund purposes.

Not at all. I am not joining the misguided "Stop Raiding the Trust Funds" crowd.

I am simply saying that the trust funds and therefore their trustees are irrelevant to the issue of whether our Social Security and Medicare benefits are threatened.

The only thing that should be relevant is what level of benefits do we want or need and how much are we willing to pay for them.

The trust funds and their trustees are smoke screens and should be eliminated so everyone can concentrate on the real issues.

Roland G. Ley

Arlington Heights