It's 2005. Do you know where your Social Security taxes are?

Do you know where your Social Security taxes are? Some of them went to pay for the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

The same monies helped the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines pay for developing exhibits for the World Food Prize. And we should all be happy some of our Social Security surplus funded a study of mariachi music for the Clark County (Nevada) School District [Earmark #1].

As we know by now, Social Security faces many problems requiring long-term, comprehensive reform. But before a doctor operates on a patient, the first step is to stop the bleeding. And the first step toward Social Security reform should be to stop Congress from spending Social Security money on anything except workers' retirement...

...The basic problem is Social Security is currently set up so workers don't own their Social Security funds. Because workers don't own their money, Congress treats that money like its own: free to spend on whatever the members choose. And spend it they do, on everything from the war in Iraq to the International Fertilizer Development Center. In return, the Social Security Trust Fund is given a bond, essentially an IOU, which will eventually have to be repaid out of future taxes.

It's the ultimate insult. Congress spends our Social Security taxes, then expects us to pay more taxes to repay its borrowing. To date, Congress has borrowed and spent more than $1.7 trillion of Social Security taxes. This year it will borrow another $60 billion...

From: Genuine lockbox