On the Right - The Grief of Senator Daschle.(budget surplus issues)(Brief Article)

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 7

Senator tom daschle, looking as if he were struggling to avert his gaze from the sack of Rome, tells us on television two or three times every day that he cannot stand the mere thought of it, that Candidate Bush would say one thing about Social Security and the fiscal surplus and contemplate, now, something else. The thought of a politician contradicting word by deed is too much for him to bear. "Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind, / And makes it fearful and degenerate; / Think therefore on revenge, and cease to weep," Queen Margaret counseled in King Henry VI.

It was a mistake for George W. to say, in the summer campaign, that under no circumstances would he derail surplus revenues from the Social Security fund. He should not have said it for the simple reason that the resolution rested on assumptions that could not safely be banked on. President Bush noticed this belatedly when, a few weeks ago, he said that of course any pledge to sequester surpluses could not be held inviolate if there were war or depression. Some might call that a hedge, others, common sense. But the situation that causes Tom Daschle to weep is other than war or depression.

And it calls for a direct examination of the anatomy of Social Security and federal spending, done with strenuous effort to refrain from the use of numbers.

1) Social Security, in its present scale, is in danger because federal income from Social Security taxes is not projected to match Social Security commitments.

The reason for this has nothing whatever to do with the budget. The problem arises from the number of Americans who are paying Social Security taxes and the number of people drawing Social Security benefits. When the program began, the ratio was approximately 40 to one. That meant that 40 people were paying into Social Security while one was drawing from it. That ratio contracts as more people reach Social Security age and then live longer, while relatively fewer people work.

2) The situation, then, calls for reform. This can only take one of several painful roads. The first is to revise the Social Security log- on schedule to adjust for longevity. Since 1935, when the Act took hold, Americans have been graced to live eight years longer, and counting, than they then did. It would make sense to postpone ...