They decided to extend the so-called payroll tax cut. Everyone likes a tax cut. It’ll leave about a $100 billion in taxpayer’s pockets that would otherwise fund Social Security.

If the headline read, “Social Security Funding Cut” instead of “Tax Cut Extended,” do you think the public would get excited?

We all know Social Security is in big trouble, but apparently accelerating those troubles is worth it in exchange for putting an extra $20 a week in the hand of those making $50,000 a year. I beg to differ.

I’m a fiscal conservative, but robbing Peter to pay Paul so Paul can buy some piece of made-in-China junk isn’t going to save this economy, and it’s sure not going to help Social Security.

This time next year we’ll owe more than $17 trillion. Critics keep saying we’re mortgaging our kids and grandkids future with runaway debt. Not so; We are impoverishing ourselves now.

When he ran for president, Barack Obama said the greatest danger facing America was the runaway national debt, about $9 trillion then. He said he would move to address it immediately once elected. He didn’t.

When he revealed his plans for mammoth increases in the national debt, the General Accounting Office said the money system would fail when accumulated debt reached about $17 trillion.

Obama’s new budget proposal is a disaster. Cutting isn’t going to happen because austerity measures don’t get you elected, they get you condemned and vilified in Congress and the media. Taxing just the rich won’t work; there just aren’t enough rich guys. The fact is, we all need to chip in.

Don’t be fooled by apparently improving economic numbers. That’s just the drowning man coming up for the last time before he goes down for good.

Bruce Clavette

Athens