The Wrong Debate

November 5, 1999

In Thursday's Washington Times, Donald Lambro's discussion of the Social Security debate on Capitol Hill hit the nail on the head: "The most disappointing aspect of the end-of-the-session budget battle between the White House and Congress is that it's about the wrong issue. The fight is over preserving the Social Security surplus when it should be about giving workers the freedom to put their payroll taxes into their own retirement accounts."

The real issue, Lambro argues, is not government surpluses but personal wealth. Reform that turns Social Security into "a modern, wealth-creating system that is fully and carefully invested in the burgeoning American economy" would create a nation of citizen-shareholders. Personal retirement accounts, Lambro concludes, are "a campaign issue whose time has come."

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