Honesty needed to address national debt

I would hope that our elected officials and the media understand how our government works (or doesn’t), but you would never know it listening to what they say and write.

The July 25 column by Cal Thomas regarding a plan to save Social Security would make sense if there really was a trust fund. But Congress took that money long ago and spent it.

A trust fund only exists on paper, not in fact.

We have one United States Treasury. All revenue goes into that treasury and all expense comes out of it.

The payroll tax goes in just like all the other taxes. Social Security and disability payments come out just like all the other expenditures.

We can no more run out of money for Social Security than we can for welfare payments, military expenditures, or the many boondoggles like that shrimp on the treadmill or the outrageous expense accounts and pensions we pay our elected officials.

And, in fact, we have already run out of money.

The government spends much more than it takes in. According to the debt clock, our national debt is now $19.9 trillion and going up more every day with no end in sight.

We do need a plan, but Social Security is just a small part of the overall problem.

For openers, why not tell the people the truth rather than the same old lies over and over again?

Want to solve a problem? Start by being truthful about it.

Don Race New London