SATURDAY'S EDITORIAL

By T&D Staff

S.C. senators may be Social Security heroes

THE ISSUE: Social Security

OUR OPINION: Sens. DeMint and Graham have workable solution

South Carolina Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham have called the future of Social Security one of the key issues facing the nation. Now, the two are being identified as key lawmakers in crafting a compromise that can "save" Social Security.

For his part, DeMint recently went public with criticism of Congress for its annual practice of raiding Social Security trust funds, the money being used to fund other initiatives.

Now comes legislation authored by DeMint and Graham that would end the raiding by using the money to create personal retirement accounts controlled by individuals. Their plan stops short of a broad privatization of Social Security but should be palatable even to those determined that the massive government benefits program remain in control of government.

Phil Kerpen, policy director for the Free Enterprise Fund, calls the DeMint-Graham plan a "sensible compromise."

"The DeMint-Graham bill starts off with what should be obvious: Social Security funds should be used only for Social Security. Many Americans are surprised to learn that billions of dollars are taken out of Social Security each year in a congressional raid that funds everything under the sun — except worker retirement — masking the true size of the federal deficit," Kerpen writes.

"Under DeMint-Graham, that stops. ... All of the Social Security funds left over each year, after all of the benefits have been fully paid, would be placed in personal retirement accounts that would be owned and controlled by individual workers."

Kerpen gives DeMint and Graham a chance at success with both fellow Republicans and with Democrats.

"DeMint and Graham must convince their Senate Republican colleagues that their hopes of achieving permanent solvency on paper will collapse of their own political weight. Senate Democrats will have to be persuaded to come to the table even if personal accounts are still on it. This is, to be sure, heavy lifting — but DeMint and Graham are terrific salesman and have a great product to sell. It's a workable option that buys time to develop a long-term solution without wrecking the U.S. economy and gives workers a real chance for a better return tomorrow.

"The compromise proposal moves toward a modernized system at an incremental pace, giving financial markets the time to adjust and allowing for mid-course corrections as needed. It is consistent with Bush's fundamental principles for reform and is exactly the approach called for by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who told Congress that personal accounts should be opened 'in a cautious, gradual way' in order to "go slowly and test the waters."

The plan allows everyone to claim a measure of political victory, meaning it can be approved. It is a sensible compromise about which South Carolinians can be proud our senators are its engineers.

E-mail this page

Print version

Back to the top