Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
D.S., Roanoke
A: Relax. Your software is correct.
Leap year makes its usual every-fourth-year appearance at the end of this millennium.
Most software is written to insert a Feb. 29 in years divisible by 4.
That will be correct until the year 2100, when leap year indeed will be skipped. That's a timing adjustment because the earth's orbit of the sun is a few minutes less than 3651/4 days.
That anomaly in 2100 won't matter to us or our computers, because technology then won't resemble anything we're using now. (Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts.)
Surplus spent
Q: We're supposed to have had a surplus in Social Security funds for years. But I contend that under the Reagan and Bush presidencies and maybe others, the surplus has been used toward the national debt or other things to meet the needs of Congress. Am I right?
R.H., Roanoke
A: Legally, you're wrong. But in reality, you're right.
There's a surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund, and it's protected by law so it can't be spent on anything else. Therefore, the surplus exists - technically.
However, Congress has borrowed, using the trust fund as collateral, for IOUs to pay interest on the national debt and for government programs that ran short of cash.
The IOUs take the form of Treasury bonds and bills. They'll need to be cashed in 2013, when the first baby boomers turn 67.
Problem is, there's no cash on hand to cover the IOUs. The trust-fund surplus is just a bookkeeping entry, backed not by money but by paper.
Ideas are being tossed around to generate the cash needed to cover those IOUs. That's why we're hearing proposals to increase payroll taxes, reduce cost-of-living allowances and increase the retirement age.
That's also the reason political candidates line up to sign pledges that they won't reduce anyone's benefits.
They're a lot less eager to say where they'll find the money when crunch time comes.
Sources for this background include the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, and the watchdog groups Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and National Committee to Preserve Social Security.|
Tired as a mule
Q: I'd like to know the name of the mule that belonged to Festus Hagen on Gunsmoke.
Mrs. H., Wytheville
A: Marshall Dillon's deputy called his mule Ruth, which may have been amusing in the '60s but isn't politically correct today. (Source: The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs, by Vincent Terrace.)
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.|
by CNB