Larsen didn't level with constituents

Rick Larsen's forums on Social Security reform (Feb. 27) are a good idea, but without honest information they won't accomplish much.

Larsen says there is no Social Security crisis because the trust fund has reserves for many years. Those reserves are nothing but IOUs, however. Suppose that someone decided to save $200 a month for retirement. Rather than invest the cash, he wrote himself an IOU for $200 every month while spending the money as usual. Forty years later, he'd have a drawer full of IOUs totaling $96,000, but you and I would both understand that he really hadn't saved anything.

Projections show the government will be in the exact same position, perhaps as early as 2013 and certainly by 2018. In order to repay the money it has borrowed from Social Security, the government will have to hike taxes, dramatically increase borrowing or implement severe budget cuts. This constitutes a real crisis.

Larsen says we have time, that it may take two or three congresses to develop a consensus on reform. Three congresses means six years, putting us perhaps only two years away from the point when Social Security's payouts will exceed revenues. That kind of delay is irresponsible and will make it much harder to fix the problem.

We do need a dialog on the details of reform, but it must start with facts. Larsen knows that the trust fund is a fiction, so why won't he level with us?

Mark Lijek, Anacortes

Letters to the Editor - Skagit Valley Herald