Cuts for Social Security, Too

It's generational war out there, folks. The new Republican Congressional leadership has pledged major cuts to welfare, unemployment insurance and Medicaid--the major benefactors of the United States' younger poor and unemployed. But they have left Social Security, the sacred cow with not long to live, untouched.

An unretired 65-year-old with an earned income exceeding $100,000 doesn't need Social Security payments. Social Security gives that person the option to stop working, but need not be a source of luxuries for an already well-to-do citizen.

When Social Security legislation was enacted during the New Deal, it carried two goals. The first was to provide a financial safety-net for Americans in their retirement; the second was to encourage personal saving.

Research from the last 20 years has shown that a $1 contribution to Social Security replaces more than $1 of private saving for a given working individual. Social Security has failed as a savings mechanism. Why should it be a safety-net for Americans too well-off to need one?

Despite the cries of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), Social Security needs a huge overhaul. Rather than trying to provide for the entire younger generation, it needs to set its sights on the neediest cases. Otherwise, the Social Security fund will be bankrupt before this generation gets to collect. People in the work force will more than make up their Social Security with private savings--an asset on which the government can't default.

The reasons why the Republicans have ignored Social Security are solely political. When so many elderly Americans voted Republican, the G.O.P. knew where its support lay. The AARP's legendary lobbying power is also preventing Congress from providing for the future as well as the present. But the Republicans have not caved in entirely; they still plan some Medicare cuts, though it's unclear how much the voting elderly will be hurt.

Too many budget dollars are flowing to a generation that has many members who can take care of themselves. The result is that scarce resources are being siphoned away from those who really need them.

The new Republican Congress, if it is to avoid claims of hypocrisy, needs to address this situation. When the budget ax falls, it should fall fairly. Social Security should not be spared just because its beneficiaries have a few more gray hairs on their heads.