Gambling on the future.

• Author: Trimbell, Blake
• Position: Letter to the Editor

America made a commitment to its citizens: if you work your whole adult life, you will receive Social Security benefits (Comment, "Save Social Security," January issue). Social Security is a trust fund that workers invest in from the time they start working until retirement. It represents a promise that has been made to the working class of America, something that should not be cut from the federal budget.

If Bush has his way, Social Security would no longer be a social insurance program providing a guarantee of lifelong retirement income. Instead, workers' core retirement income would be put at risk in an investment program where benefits are determined by the luck and wisdom of their investment choices and the ups and downs of financial markets.

Currently, Social Security's benefits continue for as long as a retiree lives (and throughout the lifetime of a surviving spouse, as well). But income from stock investments would not be guaranteed to last that long. Essentially, a system of personal stock accounts would provide lower benefits at a higher cost to workers. We must protect our nation's future and stop the fleecing of the taxpayers by the Bush Administration.

Blake Trimbell

Monona, Wisconsin

I have been troubled by the whole "saving" Social Security, mantra of the Bush Administration. My big peeve about the Social Security system is the cap on income eligible for payroll taxation. If we took the tax all the way to the last dollar, there would be plenty available.

And there is no need to "fix" Social Security in order to continue the level of payouts...