No Support for Benefit Cuts

[RRand98163@aol.com]

Dear Representative Nadler,

	I would like to comment on several points raised in your defense of 
H.R. 1043.

1. You state that your bill does not raise taxes. But it does call for 
transfer of very substantial funds from general revenues, which revenues come 
from income and other taxes. This is just another way of raising taxes, in a 
much less controlled and disciplined manner.
2. Your bill does not raise the retirement age in line with increases in life 
expectancies. I believe that maintaining the expected length of retirement 
income at its present level is reasonable and also necessary to maintain a 
viable Social Security system. I assume that your bill does not remove the 
1983 change that raises the retirement age to 67 in gradual steps but stops 
at that point for some obscure reason. If that partial change was justified, 
a fuller and more complete change is also.
3. Your bill endorses President Clinton's proposal to transfer funds from 
general revenues to Social Security, such transfers to be calculated as 62% 
of the so-called budget surpluses. If the Social Security system were 
experiencing some drastic financial emergency, such a transfer might be 
justified.  The present shortfall of 2.1% can easily be corrected by wise and 
prudent adjustments within the present approach of a self-sustaining system. 
Besides that, this infusion only serves to postpone the year when a more 
basic adjustment will be needed. Finally, the so-called Social Security 
surplus is not really a surplus at all, since an even larger sum is needed to 
bring the system into financial balance. Social Security is not correctly 
included in the overall budget. Until this gross error in financial reporting 
is corrected, no large scale financial transfers should be made based on an 
incorrectly calculated budget surplus.