Not because I want to defend Social Security, it just seems like the easiest way to make a buck these days. I stopped in to check on my grandmother today, and she mentioned that while she didn't have time today, she wanted my help with some mail she had received, and wanted to understand what it was about. And I noticed the top letter on her computer, removed from the envelope, but NOT discarded, was yet another funding letter from a Social Security group.

No matter how many times I explain to her that donating to such groups is like paying to make the sun come up, each time she gets a funding letter, she gets worried, and thinks she needs to do her part to keep her main source of income flowing.

And from that point of view, it's a great racket. You solicit donations, draw as cushy a salary as you like, and "earn" the money by taking DC players to expensive restaurants or luxury vacations fact-finding missions. I would be astonished if any of these groups' overtures to legislators were rebuffed with the assurances that the Senator or Congressthing fully intends to defend Social Security with his dying breath, and does not require more convincing.

And the best part is, when you need to justify the money you spend and the salary you are earning, all you have to do is point to the fact that no one has repealed Social Security or even dared propose legislation for that purpose, no doubt in terror of your fierce lobbying efforts. And if Social Security ever does go, the world is going to be having so many more problems that an audit is going to be the least of your concerns.