This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE  

            What’s the future of Social Security?

            After all that should concern anyone from twenty or so to a hundred.   I know that it concerns me.

            Earlier last year President Bush was busy campaigning the country, alerting them to the fact that if things stay as they are, Social Security will be bankrupt by 2030.

            That date doesn’t bother me because if I were to get there, I’d be 111 or more, but it certainly is a matter of concern.

            Despite all his efforts, the President’s plans for a change in the social security system got the cold shoulder from the Congress.  While he proposed an increase in the age when one could get benefits, to a lower annual increase, he also proposed a plan whereby younger people could put the equivalent of social security payments in a separate fund…one that they would own.

            The Congress felt that was a threat to the future of the program and it went no where.

            We noticed the other night during the President’s State of the Union speech that he made note of the fact that his social security plan had been defeated in Congress.  Almost to a person the entire Democratic side of the aisle got up and began to applaud.  I presume they were happy his plan was defeated.

            What bothers me even more is that those who opposed his plan have not come up with an alternative.

            Oh, they all seem to agree that the fund will go bankrupt, but also don’t seem to care enough to propose some changes.

            I do hope that the President will follow through with his plan to name a bipartisan commission to explore the problem and come up with some workable solutions.  He stressed the need for it to be bi-partisan, and sort of challenged those who opposed his plan to come up with theirs.

            With a 24 year head start there is hope that a workable solution will adequately finance the program for the foreseeable future.

            Social Security initially was to be merely a supplement to one’s retirement program.  However, to all too many it has become their only retirement program.   Any solution to the program must include a means of younger workers to look ahead to retirement and plan accordingly.

            Already there are IRA and Health Savings programs that can  provide that needed supplement, and it is important that today’s workers take advantage of these type of savings programs.

            One must, in all honesty, give the President credit for tackling the subject, one that most politicians consider a hot rail that they don’t want to touch.

            Meantime….I’m still waiting for those Democrats who applauded so loudly at the President’s mention of social security, to come up with their idea for saving this most important program.

            This is Floyd Wynne that that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.