Top Republican Warns Bush On Social Security Reform

      Sunday, on Fox news, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, warned President Bush against Social Security reforms that can't be funded without throwing the United States into even greater debt. Sen Lindsey, who is in support of greater payroll taxes to pay for the reform said, "What I'm asking of the president, when it comes to the transition costs, be flexible,", "I think it's irresponsible to borrow the whole trillion dollars,". The real estimates of reform though are closer to $2-$3 trillion. Bush has said though that he will not raise payroll taxes. Maybe there is a magical money tree that we don't know about buried in Fort Knox.

White House officials say borrowing would not endanger the president's other financial goals, which include a pledge to cut the federal deficit in half by fiscal year 2009.

But Graham, who said he has proposed raising the annual salary cap for Social Security taxes from $87,900 to $150,000, said a big jump in borrowing could increase the deficit to more than $700 billion.

"I don't think you can make the tax cuts permanent, have alternative minimum tax relief and borrow the entire transition costs, which is over a trillion dollars, and have deficits that we can sustain," the South Carolina Republican said.

      To me the Social Security program is a needed safety net for our country. With all this talk about personal investment in the stock market, it seems to me that people are forgetting what happened in 1929 or 2001 for that matter. What kind of country allows its government to let people live in garbage dumps rather than ensure they have shelter and food. Some great country we live in.