Social Security: A Washington Times Op-ed

Via Mark Thoma, check out what Lawrence A. Hunter wrote in the Washington Times:

If Congress wants to do something serious about Social Security's solvency, it should stop the raid on Social Security, not expand it. Rather than rush to the nuclear options of raising taxes, cutting future benefits and raising the retirement age, if Congress would only stop stealing the Trust Fund surpluses and get about actually paying the Trust Fund the annual interest owed it and then start using those surpluses and interest payments to begin prefunding future retirees' retirement, Social Security could be made solvent for decades to come without raising one new dollar in taxes or cutting a single dollar in future benefits or making old people work one year longer. Here's a modest proposal: Why doesn't the new Congress get itself straight with the American people, stop the raid on Social Security, begin paying the interest it owes to the Social Security Trust Fund and devote those interest payments along with the annual payroll-tax surpluses to financing a refundable tax credit to anyone opening a retirement account for a child younger than 18? Call them Head Start Retirement Accounts.