Social Security again

I found this comment to a Common Dreams posting today and want to share it with you:

One of the most important questions of last night’s Republican YouTube debate was addressed by at least two candidates, but the question itself was completely IGNORED.

“The federal government has borrowed 2 trillion dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund. What will you do to repay the funds and restore the trust?”

We got diatribe about entitlements out of control and overspending by the government. We got nothing near an answer, and to CNN’s discredit, they did not insist upon receiving an answer. There are, of course, only two possible answers. (1) We will never repay the funds to the SS Trust, or (2) We will raise the high-end income and capital gains and estate taxes as needed, since the insufficiency (especially due to cuts by Republicans since Reagan) of those taxes is why Social Security funds were “borrowed” in the first place, and why that “borrowing” is expected to continue to 2017.

Democrats tagging the Republicans for outright theft of all the Social Security money is THE single theme that would win the election of 2008 by a landslide. Why don’t we citizens help the Democrats find their bearings on this one?

It really galls me to hear Republicans disparage Social Security as an "entitlement" as if it were some kind of give-away. I have been paying into Social Security my entire working life. When I'm old enough to receive a Social Security income, it will not be a hand-out! That money needs to be put back and somebody needs to speak up about it.