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Social Security faces a major problem beginning in 2018, but it is not the problem that Bush, Greenspan and their supporters would have you believe.

The problem is that every penny of the $1.5 trillion in Social Security surplus, generated by the 1983 payroll tax hike, has been "borrowed" and spent (embezzled) by the federal government. This misuse of Social Security funds, that has been going on under both Democrats and Republicans ever since the surpluses began to show up in the 1980s, is in my opinion the greatest fraud ever perpetrated against the American people by their government.

The baby boomers are not the cause of the Social Security problem. Alan Greenspan and company saw to it that the baby boomers would pay enough taxes to pay the retirement cost of the preceding generation, plus enough additional taxes to prepay the cost of their own retirement. If the government had not looted the money, there would be enough assets in the trust fund to pay full benefits until at least 2042.

In a speech on the Senate floor on October 9, 1990, Senator Harry Reid referred to the misuse of Social Security money as "embezzlement" and "thievery." The late Senator Heinz, a Republican from Pennsylvania, also used the word "embezzlement" to describe what was taking place. Senators Heinz, Reid, Hollings, and Moynihan were among those honest members of Congress who tried to stop the looting when it first started under President George H.W. Bush. Senator Moynihan even introduced legislation that would have repealed the 1983 payroll tax increase to keep the surplus out of Bush's hands.

The Social Security trust fund is empty! Contrary to popular belief, it does not hold any marketable Treasury bonds. The government has been issuing a different kind of IOU to the trust fund since shortly before the surpluses by the 1983 tax increase began to flow in. They are called "special issues," and they are held only by the government trust funds. They are not marketable, they have no cash value, and they are not real assets.

Senator Hollings has referred to these special issue IOUs as "a 21st century version of Confederate banknotes."

Since my book, "The Looting Of Social Security," was published in January 2004, I have done everything in my power to alert the public to these facts. However, Weisbrot and Baker, authors of the book, "Social Security: The Phony Crisis," have continued to insist that the trust fund holds enough real assets to keep Social Security going indefinitely, despite the fact that it holds no real assets.

They have a much higher profile than I have, and, thus, they have been quoted often and widely in the media. Now they have an op-ed article in the Washington Post. Although I have written many letters to various editors and writers at the Washington Post in an effort to instill interest in my views, I have yet to get a single reply.

"Social Security: The Phony Crisis" and "The Looting of Social Security" cannot both be right. Either there are, or there are not, real assets in the trust fund. Since the Washington Post has given Weisbrot and Baker the opportunity to present their view, which is just the opposite of mine, I respectfully request that the editors of the Post give me an opportunity to respond. This is too important of an issue for the American people to be denied any point of view.

Having researched Social Security funding for the past five years, and having published two books on the subject, I know that the American people are being deceived and misled by their government with regard to Social Security. Yet, I have been denied access to some media outlets because the message I am delivering does not fit neatly into either of the two main points of view in the national debate.

I firmly believe that both sides of the debate that is currently going on are wrong, but my views have not even been introduced into the national public debate. I request that the media in general not silence the messenger just because they do not like the message.

Perhaps a good person to settle the argument is David Walker, the Comptroller General of the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO). Mr. Walker spoke on this very issue just two days ago, on January 21, 2005. In a San Francisco Chronicle story yesterday, Carolyn Lochhead, quoted Mr. Walker as saying the following:

"The left hand owes the right hand, and that has legal, political and moral significance. But it doesn't have any economic significance whatsoever. There are no stocks or bonds or real estate in the trust fund. It has nothing of real value to draw down ... The trust fund gives a very false sense of security about where we are and how much time we have."

Allen W. Smith, who holds a Ph.D. degree in economics from Indiana University, is Professor of Economics Emeritus, Eastern Illinois University.

The author of several books, including "The Looting of Social Security: How the Government is Draining America's Retirement Account," (Carroll & Graf, 2004) and "The Alleged Budget Surplus, Social Security, and Voodoo Economics," Dr. Smith has appeared on CNBC, CNNfn, and more than 100 radio talk shows to discuss Social Security.

Editor's note: