Shea-Porter information is misleading

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

To the Editor:

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter was being disingenuous when she argued that the sequester is all the fault of Congress. She ignored the fact that this plan to cut spending was suggested by the White House during budget talks in 2011 and that President Obama signed it into law on Aug. 2 of that year.

She was similarly misleading with her comments on the Social Security program, writing that it has not contributed to the debt. In fiscal year 2012 the program brought in $725.4 billion and paid out $773.2 billion in benefits and overhead. That’s $48 billion added to the deficit – and to the debt. And that spread will only get worse.

When she mentioned 2033 as the year when the program will fall short, she apparently was referring to the pile of IOUs that are in a filing cabinet labeled “Trust Fund” somewhere in the Social Security office. People who have been paying attention have known for years that there is no money in the fund and that benefits will have to be paid from current income, or more borrowing.

WALTER GRIFFIN

Bedford