I expect to see a UFO before I expect to see a social security check with my name on it. As the workers generally frown on tax increases and the proletariat slum denizens vote for those who give them entitlements, the brilliant financial genius in Washington came up with the veritable Aladdin's lamp of funding for unlimited government spending. Without bothering to tax people or even borrowing the money, they decided that they would simply borrow it from social security and put it into the general fund.

With financial flim flam that would make Arthur Andersen and Enron blush, they simply took the money from the social security trust fund and spent it on any government program that would buy them votes. This subterfuge gleaned them a lot of votes because he who robs Peter to pay Paul can generally count on Paul's vote. If any business handled their pension program the way the federal government did social security, they would be in the big house, not the white house. That is not to suggest that congress acted in an imprudent manner. They were very prudent - They were simply dishonest. You see congress was very careful to make sure they themselves were not dependent on the social security system. That's right, believe it or not, congressmen, like the executives at Enron, have their own pension program in addition to social security, which is quite secure, you can be sure of that. If they were themselves entirely dependent on the social security system, as the rest of us are, they could be relied upon to maintain the long term solvency of the system. Which is why I plan to introduce legislation to eliminate the congressmen's private Enron like pension program and put all those funds in social security with us. As far as I'm concerned, the captain goes down with the ship, whether it's Ken Lay or your and my congressman.