personality and Middle America "icon" won't just be throwing a party, he is a man with a mission.

The evening will be devoted to a new book, "Stop the Raid," by Dennison Smith and Peter Ferrara. Linkletter contributed a foreword to the book, which explains how the federal government has raided the Social Security trust fund over the years, using the money for other government spending.

For example, in 2007, 88 percent of total Social Security tax income was spent immediately for current benefits and expenses, leaving a surplus at $80.3 billion. What happened to that surplus money? The federal government borrowed it and spent it on general budget expenditures. In return, Social Security got Federal IOUs, which promise to pay the money back with interest. Over the next five years, from 2008 to 2012, the federal government will continue to raid (borrow) another $410 billion from the Social Security trust funds.

The problem is that the federal government has no assets or other cash to back these IOUs. When Social Security starts running deficits in 2017, the government will have to tax workers again to get the money to pay these IOUs back, so all Social Security benefits can continue to be paid.

The book reports that from 2017 to 2041, when the trust funds are currently projected to run out, taxpayers will have to shell out an additional $6 trillion, besides the payroll tax, because of the raid on the Social Security money, to cover all the IOUs.

Courtesy of a Jack Kemp editorial in the NiagraFallsReporter.com