BACK • 
Election Day is Almost Here
I received the following e-mail from my friend in Arizona, Fred, a couple of days ago. It makes a sharp point, and one that ought to be remembered as we head toward Election Day. Fred's e-mail was as follows:
"Our Senators and Congressmen don't pay into Social Security and, of course, they don't collect from it. The reason is that they have a special retirement plan that they voted for themselves many years ago. For all practical purposes, it works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw their same pay until they die, except that it may be increased from time to time with living adjustments. For instance, former Senator Bradley and his wife may be expected to draw $7,900,000, with Mrs. Bradley drawing $275,000 during the last year of her life. This is calculated on an average life span for each. This would be well and good, except that they paid nothing in on any kind of retirement, and neither does any other Senator or Congressman. The cost of this fine retirement plan comes right out of the General Fund; our tax money-while we, who pay for it all, draw an average of $1,000 per month from Social Security.
Imagine for a moment that you could structure a retirement plan so desirable that people would have extra money deducted so that they could increase their own retirement income. A retirement plan that works so well Railroad employees, Postal Workers and others who aren't in it would clamor to get in. That is how good Social Security could be if only one small change was made. The change is to jerk the Golden Fleece retirement out from under the Senators and Congressmen, and put them in Social Security with the rest of us. Watch how fast they fix it. If enough people see this, maybe one or some of them along the way might be able to help. Inform your neighbor."
Fred's e-mail makes an interesting point, which is that in the larger sense there is almost no problem in America today that cannot be solved if you get the right people involved. The point specifically on Social Security is that everyone knows Social Security is in trouble. Mr. Bush wants to change it, I think constructively, by allowing people to take a small portion of their money and invest it in the stock market. Mr. Gore, predictably, doesn't care that the system is malfunctioning, that everyone on earth knows it goes off a cliff in a few years-he wants to maintain the status quo, control all the money in Washington, and flat out has admitted that he doesn't trust "we, the people." As he's said several times, his big fear is that if people got their hands on even a small portion of their Social Security they might be tempted to gamble it away or drink it away or do something else foolish with it. If that doesn't insult every thinking person, I don't know what does. But, apparently, it doesn't.
In the meantime, Fred's e-mail makes an even better point. That is, the Social Security problem probably will not be fixed completely until Congress is forced to get into the program. If you want to clean the swamp, so to speak, force Congress to come in with all the alligators and snakes and pollutants, and, no doubt, it will get cleaned up pretty quickly. As long as they can stand outside the swamp, that is, not have a direct financial interest in it, they can tinker with it or do the "politically correct" thing, but they won't get in there and fix it.
And so it is with so many of the problems in America today. We have an energy problem once again, and haven't had an energy policy in this country for the past eight years; that neglect is finally coming home to roost.
At the bottom line, Election Day is right around the corner. The saddest part of all is that as much as half of America will not even bother to vote. If you do vote, your vote has twice the power. If you're not going to bother, then for the next four years, please just sit back and be quiet, because if you didn't vote then you shouldn't be allowed to complain, as you've abdicated your right for input by not voting in the fist place.
(Tom Butenhoff is a First Vice President with J. E. Liss and Company, Inc.
in Milwaukee. The views are his, and not necessarily those of Liss
Financial Services or the Job Connection/Hiring
Network.)