Letter to the Editor

Bill Guida’s May 17 barb against Paul Ryan was disgraceful. Guida ridiculed Ryan for stumping for personal retirement accounts “because Congress hasn’t had the moral or ethical courage to protect Social Security monies from being raided.”

Guida should examine the Congressional record. He would discover that stopping the raid on Social Security has been Paul Ryan’s “raison d’être” since he was first elected to Congress.

One of Ryan’s first bills was the Social Security lockbox. It breezed through the House May 26, 1999. The bill then proceeded to the Senate where the Democrats killed it six times with filibusters. Senators Feingold and Kohl supported all six of those filibusters:

Feingold was asked at his March 7 listening session in Cudahy why he filibustered the lock box. Feingold’s terse response: “That filibuster (as if there had been only one) had to do with other issues.” The questioner wasn’t allowed a follow-up, but he surely would have asked what those “other issues” were. Feingold’s answer would have been fascinating because there were no extraneous issues associated with that bill. The bill simply walled off Social Security so that it could no longer be spent on other programs. Each vote was either for or against the Social Security lockbox. Again, all easily verified.

Ryan has been trying to stop the raid on Social Security since 1998. He’s still trying. His bill (Ryan-Sununu) saves Social Security by allowing people to opt for personal accounts because he knows the system is almost $12 trillion in debt. One of the ways Ryan’s bill pays for transition costs is by stipulating Congress would be forced to stop the raid on Social Security.

C’mon, Guida. If you don’t like the raid on Social Security, praise Ryan for his dauntless efforts to stop to it and censure Feingold and Kohl for allowing it to continue.