Social Security isn't a retirement fund

It's the people's responsibility to save for old age.

Some of the recent letters on Social Security have raised good points about the problem of the status quo. All Congress cares about is making payments today, and leaving the solvency issue for someone else to deal with twenty years down the road. I want to highlight that the true problem was created by President Johnson in the 1960s when he merged Social Security with the general budget. President Johnson made a colossal error by pouring this trust fund into the general budget, and allowing programs (such as disability payments) to spring from it.

It's time to restore Social Security to what it was intended to be: a separate and limited trust fund outside of the general budget. The people need to end Congressional borrowing against it, no matter how much is in the trust, and turn it over to the Treasury Department for strict management and distribution.

The people should vote to separate it from the general budget and terminate its use for anything other than payments for retirement age recipients who adequately paid into the fund.

The people should keep in mind that Social Security was conceived by Chancellor Bismarck in Germany and copied decades later as a program designed to avert poverty; not cover the greater cost of living. Anyone who thinks he or she is entitled to Social Security benefit that pays for anything beyond some basics is wrong.

Anyone who thinks they automatically should get an increase when inflation is flat or revenues in into the fund are down is wrong. My father told me decades ago: "Social Security should be viewed only as an inflation hedge to what you saved during your lifetime." It's the people's responsibility to save and prepare for their old age, not the taxpayer.

Harold Knudsen

Arlington Heights