Taxing Social Security Benefits

After reading Column Right, I was scared to read Column Left. The Feldsteins’ eagerness to tax Social Security benefits and divert resources from that program into War on Poverty programs lends credence to those who are scared that the new Clinton Administration will open the floodgates of socialism in this country.

The notion that benefits received over one’s total contributions to Social Security are somehow subject to unusual confiscation by the state is frightening. For 50 years, the state insisted my father contribute to that program against his wishes. He knew that the same, or less, money invested in a private plan would provide much more security for him in his old age, but that option was denied him. Being self-employed, the double contribution to Social Security prevented him from being able to afford private pension investment.

In effect the government stole quite a lot of money from him, and millions of others, on the pretext of “helping” him, and now Bill Clinton seems agreeable to the notion of helping him further by taxing his meager pension.

My God, what odious fate awaits me when I may need the money I have “invested” in Social Security around the year 2020? We must give the American people the option of diverting their mandatory contributions into private pension funds safe from the raids of pillaging government.

RICK WIGGINS

Pasadena