John, if you did receive a pay stub, you would see that what is set aside for Social Security is not in the "Tax withheld" box, it is in the "FICA" box. FICA stands for "Federal Insurance Contributions Act."

Despite the fact that people, including the government, call it colloquially a "tax," it is, in fact, an insurance premium. If the government currently doesn't handle it that way, that is not the fault of the Act itself, which was passed in 1935. The way it was initially constituted, it was supposed to be treated as if it were insurance. If the Social Security system needs any correction, it is to return it to the way it was originally supposed to be according to the legal stipulations of the Act.

It is generally assessed as the most successful program to come out of flurry of much needed social legislation of the Thirties, and since then, has assured the elderly that they will not end up in a poor house—and make no mistake:   prior to the Thirties, there were real poor houses. They were not just figures of speech. They were not much better than prisons. Helluva thing to do to people who had worked hard all their lives and either hadn't been able to save for their old age or who didn't have younger family members who could take care of them.

Incidentally, among other methods of "saving" Social Security, the amount that the Pentagon spends on the construction of one Trident submarine would take care of funding well into the next century. Comparative figures such as this (and many others) are available to anyone who cares to look or who doesn't mind learning what's really going on. Incidentally, we already have a fleet of Trident submarines, each one carrying enough destructive power to obliterate a medium-sized nation, so I don't really see why we need very many more of them. And don't get me started on SDI!!.

Even though it may feel like it to you, and even if the government currently treats it that way because of it's "creative accounting," the amount in the FICA box is not a tax, it is an insurance premium.

Don Firth