GOVERNMENT TRUST FUNDS AND SMOKE AND MIRRORS

The CPA Journal Millennium Series continues with a look at the financial condition of the Social Security program. Peering back into the history of Social Security, authors Charles O'Donnell and Robert Strittmatter explain the political sleight-of-hand that has made the trust funds appear and disappear over the years.

More important, they put the past into perspective in order to understand the not-too-distant future, in which a swelling segment of the population will rely at least partly on Social Security for financial support in their retirement years.

In a companion sidebar, Judyth Swingen talks about an AICPA study on Social Security that corroborates O'Donnell and Strittmatter's message: The time is ripe for a reality check, and there is no shortage of opinions. But tough choices cannot be put off forever; meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

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