Former U.S. Sen. George McGovern is emphatic. “There simply is no funding crisis in Social Security,” he says in his new book, “Social Security and the Golden Age: An Essay on the New American Demographic.”
Former Gov. Dick Lamm is equally adamant. “We are committing a fraud on our children and grandchildren,” he says in his 2003 book, “The Brave New World of Health Care.”
Over a pot of coffee and great mutual respect, these two college professors and icons of the Democratic Party came together Friday in Denver at my invitation. They dissected each other’s arguments with such intelligence and conviction, it was enough to make even an anti-government cynic a born-again believer in the democratic process.
Here in the era of rudeness, of Bill O’Reilly and Al Franken, a political exchange actually took place without insults or ridicule.
Imagine that.
It began with the governor, who famously loves a good row, springing forward in his chair and challenging the soft-spoken senator unabashedly.
“I question whether the Social Security trust fund has any value,” Lamm said. “I claim we might as well have invested in Confederate war bonds.”
McGovern didn’t flinch. Social Security is “the only part of the federal government that’s solvent.” The problem is with the other federal agencies, which are borrowing $2 billion a day because the government has cut taxes during wartime.
“The federal fiscal situation is a mess,” McGovern said. By focusing on Social Security instead of the ballooning federal deficit, “George Bush is addressing the wrong problem.”
“George, it’s both,” Lamm said. “They’re a train wreck.” In 2030, there will be twice as many elderly and only 18 percent more workers.
But McGovern retaliated with statistics of his own. In the 1960s, he said, “there wasn’t any crisis” with Social Security, and the system was supported by a workforce making up only 37 percent of the American population. Today, 46 percent of the population is in the workforce.
“Women were dependents not contributing to Social Security. The projections just don’t add up,” McGovern said.
The trust fund is “a $1.8 trillion accounting gimmick,” Lamm countered. “We’ve spent the money.”
Not on Social Security benefits, McGovern said. Workers and their employers continue to contribute more than the cost of the program every year.
“I disagree sharply with (Lamm) when he says the money is gone. Other agencies have borrowed from the trust fund. They owe that money, and the government has to pay that back,” he said.
“You can only spend money once,” said Lamm, “and that money is spent. We’ve embezzled the money to save ourselves.”
On and on it went. You get the idea: These guys give as good as they get. But then when they got down to solutions, they clearly shared vast common ground.
The first step, both said, is to get the country’s disastrous fiscal house in order, painful as that may be.
“America is not going to wake up until there’s a crisis,” Lamm said, “and George W. has locked us into a crisis.”
McGovern concurred: “I don’t know how we can go on with this reckless spending year after year.”
The conversation sprawled across the political landscape – from the war in Iraq (“a terrible blunder,” McGovern said) to global warming (“the greatest danger to world hunger,” Lamm said) and the cynicism of politicians who exploit religion for their own selfish ends.
Then the retired senator gently prodded his party’s leaders to get back in the game. “I find myself sometimes wishing that the Democrats had a little more spine and would speak more forcefully to the great issues before our country.”
The retired governor nodded in agreement. Then they shook hands warmly and parted as they began – two good friends whose love of country is pure and unwavering, whose hopes for the future are still burning bright.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
