To the editor:

I read about this Social Security proposal by Mr. Bush with great skepticism. Privatization of governmental programs is something Indian country is all too familiar with. House Resolution 108, or termination, was a 19-year failed attempt at doing away with the protections of trust responsibility that was supposed to “free” more than 200 tribes from governmental red tape. In all honesty, it allowed the same crooks to prey upon tribal resources like land, water, timber and other natural resources that did so in the 19th century. For most tribes, this process ended in the 1980s with restoration, ending a failed congressional act from 1953.

Social Security was created by FDR to protect workers from being penniless in retirement. The fact that the interest being paid on these funds is so low can be attributed to the Bush administration leaning on the Fed to get interest rates so low that no interest can be earned. As a savings account holder, I know what I made before 2000 and after 2000. It took Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover and their “laissez faire” economic policies to create the Great Depression and the policies of FDR to fix that mess. I’ve made little interest under a “fiscally responsible” president like Mr. Bush. Where have the fiscally responsible Republicans gone, and why should these Republicans be trusted with Social Security?

Mike Ford,

Bonner Springs