George,

Our conservative president, in his full court press to destroy Social Security, may have stepped way over the bounds of constitutionality. We now learn that America's obligation to pay future old age benefits are "just a bunch of I.O.U.'s" with the clear implication that the "full faith and credit of the U.S. Government" is a concept that is being discarded along with, among others, the separation of church and state, and the separation of powers.

Paragraph 4 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says. "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."

Last I checked that Amendment has not been repealed. What must those foreigners who hold U.S. obligations be thinking? Japan, Taiwan, China and South Korea alone hold 40% of our government debt, and this investment in America has, among other results, kept mortgage rates low and the housing boom alive (New York Times, 4 Dec 04).

Al Weed (electronic mail, April 6, 2005)