by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: October 17, 2009

It is inconceivable that a program which is based in involuntary payments over the lifetime of a worker should even be under consideration for cancellation until the last worker has exhausted their life or their benefits.

If the Social Security trust fund were ever to become insolvent, then it would be because funds were wrongly, immorally or even illegally redistributed to other parts of the government budget, or even into the bank accounts of private business interests. In that case, the improperly diverted funds must be restored to the Social Security trust fund, no matter what it takes.

There needs to be a distinction between the language and rhetoric that is being used to benefit the private retirement insurance and finance industry, and the truth, however. There are many ways for the Social Security trust fund to be restored to a sufficient fund and to remain solvent. Those ways do not include programs that are designed to enrich private industry, which has diverted enough of the national treasure and trust between 2001 and 2009.

The fact of the matter is that people are working for far more years than the original plan considered. This should accommodate the fact that people are living longer than the original plan considered. Healthier lifestyles, better medical care, and other factors not only extend life, they extend working and earning life, and therefore extend the amount of individual contributions to the trust fund.

However, handing over excessive profits to the medical insurance and drug industries are not acceptable activities, given the increased medical care needed by older workers.

In Medicare payments, two elements: fraud and payment errors constitute billions in improperly spent money. If payment errors and fraud are detected and corrected, billions in savings can result from auditing and recovery programs. One such program, tested the work of Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) in California, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Arizona during the period from 2005 to 2008. This one "demonstration" identified $992.7 million in over payments and $37.8 million in underpayments in just six states.1

With retirement pension and disability benefits, eliminating payments to non contributing beneficiaries; stopping diversion of disability insurance monies to programs that benefit non contributors, and which are rife with fraud; and identity fraud are the biggest concerns.

Support of disabled children, educational programs for surviving

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