Hardly a day goes by that we don't hear FED Chairman Ben Bernake or some other voice of the government bemoaning the sad and unsustainable expense of Social Security. You know the drill: How can it go on with all the baby boomers reaching retirement age?
Here's Bernake at his most daring to date, addressing the Economics Club of Washington, which, we all know, wields much more influence than AARP: ''Reform of our unsustainable entitlement programs'' should be a priority. "The imperative to undertake reform earlier rather than later is great.''
But hold it a moment. Haven't all those baby boomers watched the Federal Government neatly extract FICA payments from their paychecks for the forty or so years they've worked?
So where's the money?
If you really take into consideration that the number of retirees will always pretty much equal the number of people who were recently working and kicking in their share of taxes toward Social Security, you arrive at the conclusion that all this talk about the unsustainable expenditure on "entitlements" as fiscally irresponsible is, in fact, an unsustainable bit of chicanery.
You may ask, What about inflation? Isn't it a factor? Of course, but, hey, what's new about that?
So we arrive at this very puzzling question? Why is it that with more people retiring, there is not more money available?
Don't tell me the FEDS raided the till for other priorities?
Anyway, bottom line is, if we burned up the retirement funds of the boomers on bombs and idiotic wars, it's time to moderate those expenditures, so the money that was slipped out of Social Security to fund those various insanities can be slipped back into it.
We promise not to notice its temporary absence.
Tom Attea, humorist and creator of NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing "delightfully funny," "witty," with "good, genuine laughs" and "great humor and ebullience."
