Would the DeMint Social Security Plan Promote Fiscal Responsibility?
Supporters of the DeMint proposal argue that the Social Security surplus is currently being “raided” by the rest of the budget because the surplus is being used to help cover the deficit. The claim that Social Security is being raided and that its finances are being weakened as a result is, however, simply incorrect. The Social Security trust fund is fully compensated, in the form of Treasury bonds that are universally regarded as one of the world’s safest and most secure investments, for the surplus funds that the rest of the budget borrows. Moreover, if the rest of the budget were in surplus rather than deficit, the Treasury would still borrow the Social Security surplus (using it in that case to pay down the federal debt) and give the Social Security Trust Fund the exact same Treasury bonds that it now receives. There is, of course, a major problem in the non-Social Security portion of the budget. The deficit outside of Social Security is quite large, principally because of unusuall
