Liberals at fault for Social Security woe

In the July 9 Fence Post, Mr. Len Brauer of Palatine reminds us of a very interesting statement made by Al Gore.

Mr. Gore said Social Security funds should be put in a lock box so that nobody could borrow from them.

When President Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Social Security program and signed it into law on August 14, 1935, he promised the money would be put into an independent Social Security Trust Fund rather than into the General Operating Fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security retirement program.

That held true, as our country was enjoying prosperity and low taxes, until 1965 when liberal Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson and the liberal Democrat Congress wanted to create the Great Society, a social program designed to provide everyone with everything including education, medical care, urban programs and transportation.

LBJ and the liberal Congress combined the Social Security Trust Fund with the General Operating Fund to finance this gargantuan program.

In 1968, knowing he could easily win re-election but realizing what his programs emphasizing government control would create, Johnson chose not to run for a second term.

He knew what was to come in subsequent years: inflation, double-digit interest rates, stagflation and eventually recession.

Roosevelt called the it the New Deal. Kennedy called it the New Frontier. Johnson called it The Great Society.

Should Obama be elected, what would he call his quasi- socialist programs?

Richard J. Piagari

Des Plaines