It is a given that some day we will get old and retire to the final frontier. I am not talking about the Alaskan wilderness or outer space; I am talking about social security. What will this frontier look like? Hawaii? Cancun? Iowa? How about a barren wasteland. Congressmen and women are battling back and forth about ways to save this program from a colossal death.

In a few short years, millions and millions of baby boomers will be retiring and when they go, so goes social security. Or so we are told. Depending on the information, the impending mess of social security may not be a mess at all.

Democrats and Republicans argue over the state of social security. President Bush’s tax cut gives every working American $300 (or $600 for families). Bush argues that his $1.35 trillion tax cut is money that belongs to Americans and stands by his decision to give the money back to the public. Democrats were hoping to use this money for social security and argue that this will strain reserves even more.

The Congressional Budget Office released their latest budget estimates, and it doesn’t look promising. The CBO, which is non-partisan, says the Federal Government will have to borrow $9 billion from social security this year to cover the budget. Bush’s tax cut is not solely to blame; the CBO also sites the economic downturn. This downturn has forced the estimated surplus for the year down $130 billion from April estimates.

Would this budget cut have saved social security? Of course not. Social security needs more than $1.35 trillion to save it, it needs an act of God. However, Democrats argue that any amount would help social security, whereas Republicans are more concerned with boosting the economy. Republicans are hoping the tax rebate will give the economy a much needed shot in the arm.

So which side do we believe? Would the tax cut money have helped social security or just get sucked into the black hole? The only thing we can believe is that the tax cut money would have kept the government from “borrowing” $9 billion this year from the final frontier.

The final frontier. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? The misconception of the frontier is fields and fields of chocolate or watching the Cubbies win World Series after World Series, not some barren wasteland that will devour us whole.

With all this impending doom, should all of us place our rebate into a retirement fund? If most students are like me, this rebate will double my bank account. I for one will deposit my forthcoming check. To the majority of the working public, the rebate will be used to pay off a bill or two. I would guess that more than 99 percent who are getting the rebate will not use it towards retirement.

So what is the solution to saving social security? Start your own retirement fund. The problem with this is many Americans can’t afford to start their own fund and must rely on the government’s version. And unless something drastic is done sometime in the next decade, social security could very well be on its deathbed.

A decade or two is a long time, so we can still hold out hope that something will be done to save, or at the very least improve, social security. Hopefully, we will all rejoice and sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as the Cubs win their 7th World Series in a row. If not, we could all face years of torture as social security plummets to a fiery death.

A good suggestion is to take $3 of your $300 and rent William Shatner’s “Star Trek: The Final Frontier.” Then pray that social security’s final frontier will not be as horrifying as William Shatner’s version.

Jason Bruen is a senior in engineering operations from Lake Bluff, Ill.