Social Security Funds

* Wanda Waldman’s letter concerning Social Security (Jan. 13) fails to mention one factor. Congress keeps borrowing from the Social Security trust fund (OASI) and replacing that money with IOUs (government bonds) which continue to increase the national debt, which must be repaid--with interest--from the general fund by all the taxpayers. If Congress would limit its spending to its own general funds, without this borrowing, and squandering our Social Security funds as if they were a piggy bank for their pork barrel, then the Social Security and Medicare funds would be completely solvent, as they were intended to be.

These “entitlements” have already been paid for, and they should be invested as they were initially intended so that they would grow and be there when required by us seniors who paid for them. Income tax on Social Security earnings becomes just so much more money in the “piggy bank” for Congress to play with and squander. Get real, Congress, and pull back to your own funds; leave our Social Security and Medicare funds alone.

GEORGE F. GORHAM

Orange