Hillary's Social Security amnesia

Washington Times Editorial:

Hillary Clinton once again asserted during the latest presidential debate that "the American people know where I've stood for 35 years." Yet, she repeatedly refuses to tell us where she stands on Social Security reform. And when she does, Mrs. Clinton misrepresents the condition of Social Security when she and her husband left the White House.

During the Nov. 15 debate, Mrs. Clinton again declared that "the Social Security system was on a path to be solvent into 2055" when her husband left office. In fact, as the Social Security trustees reported in their assessment as of Dec. 31, 2000, the projected insolvency date was 2038, nearly a full generation before the year that Mrs. Clinton has been citing. The trustees' latest assessment, which was issued in April, projects insolvency to occur in 2041.

Whenever asked to detail her views on Social Security, Mrs. Clinton says she is "for getting back to fiscal responsibility" first. But she has offered no coherent plan to achieve that goal. Indeed, the tax increases she favors will be used to partially finance her plan for universal health care, while the spending on the numerous other social programs she has embraced would, if implemented, surely lead to further fiscal irresponsibility.

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"Fiscal responsibility" is Hillary code for raising taxes. That is her plan and the Democrats plan for Social Security reform. By the time the program reaches the insolvency point it will take one taxpayer for every recipient. That is not a sustainable program and it is not fiscal responsibility. What should be done is put the program on an invested basis as proposed by the Bush administration so that recipients will not have to put all their hopes in the tax payer basket.