Stop raiding Social Security

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Do that, and the federal government will have stopped using money taken out of Americans' paychecks each week for Social Security for unrelated programs or pork-barrel projects found in the federal budget. Do that, and many Americans will get a taste of what it means to actually own a piece of their future. Do that, and Congress can get out of the ditch on critically needed Social Security reform.

South Carolina's two senators, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, have long advocated Social Security reform that allows people to create private retirement accounts with a portion of their federal payroll tax. Their efforts, and those of other true reformers, including President Bush, have gotten nowhere fast.

Democrats have long rallied the troops by distorting the intentions of people who want to retool Social Security so it addresses the needs of a changing nation. Instead of 16 workers for each retiree, we now have about three workers per retiree, and in another generation it will be only two workers per retiree. Couple those changing dynamics with much longer life spans, and it's easy to see why Social Security must be changed to avoid insolvency.

DeMint, Graham and nine other Republican senators announced new legislation Thursday designed to shore up Social Security and allow workers to own some of their money taken out in payroll taxes. Equally important, it would end the deceitful practice that Congress has engaged in for two decades. The title of the legislation says it all: "Stop the Raid on Social Security Act."

Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike) and President Reagan concocted a plan to save Social Security in the early 1980s, but the finished product was really a slush fund for elected officials who love to spend other people's money. Since 1985, $1.7 trillion has been taken from the paychecks of honest, hard-working Americans and pumped into the federal government's general spending account. That's money not reserved for the old age of today's baby boomers.

Around 2017, the annual surplus will disappear, and the federal government will confront a vault of worthless IOUs. To take care of baby boomers, the government will have to raise taxes or slash benefits.

Almost $800 billion will be collected in surplus payroll taxes between next year and 2017. There's a better option: Use the money taken from Americans' paychecks for Social Security to create private accounts, thus bringing more stability to the system, ending the deceptive use of these payroll taxes and giving more citizens ownership of their financial future.