A Boston Tea Party …(Half-Truth)

Yesterday on KFGO’s News and Views Democratic Congressman Earl Polmeroy was speaking about social security. Obviously, he was arguing that social security did not need any reforms. As his appearance was about to come to an end he said he wanted to leave the audience with one final comment. He wanted those under 55 to remember that their social security benefit will decrease if President Bush’s reform plan is adopted.

What Polmeroy did was use the art of the half-truth. Half-truths work well in politics. They allow you to scare the opposition while allowing the self respect of telling the truth. Allow me to explain. Under President Bush’s plan you will take your 7.5 percent that is being paid into social security right now and split it into two accounts. For this example lets assume you take the full 4 percent the reform is allowing to go to your private account. Account “A”, our social security money, will be getting 3.5 percent of your payroll tax (7.5 percent minus the 4 percent you place in your private account) and account “B” will be getting 4 percent of your payroll tax (this is your private account). When you retire, account “A” will have 3.5 percent of your total payroll taxes and account “B” will have 4 percent plus any income earned in the bonds or stocks that you invested in. When you start withdrawing your money you will only be allowed to take 3.5 percent from account “A” because that is all you put in there. This is where Polmeroy tweaks the truth. Obviously, your social security payout will be less because you put less into it. You only put 3.5 percent into social security while the other 4 percent is in your own private account. It would be expected then that you could not draw out more than 3.5 percent from your social security account. When you combine that 3.5 percent with the 4 percent you will be withdrawing from your personal account you get the same as you would had you put it all in account "A" (social security). The one major difference is you will also be able to withdraw any income made from bond or stock investments.

Polmeroy is correct you will get less from social security if you choose to put money in your private account. He states the obvious while purposely not mentioning the total facts. You will be getting more money in total between the two accounts. The audience is left with a half-truth too contemplate. Another reason to investigate any comment a Democrat makes that is against a certain policy. If your prefer the whole truth, you are better off not listening to them at all. Lets hope the whole truth wins.