Congress did not touch our Social Security benefits in the fiscal cliff negotiations. However, Social Security will certainly be a target next time around.

This is puzzling because Social Security has nothing to do with the national debt. It is not funded by Congress. It is funded by worker and employer contributions.

The law says Congress may borrow from Social Security’s Trust Fund and secure the debt with treasury bills, much like the secure T-bills that everyone trusts. So there’s nothing scandalous about Congress borrowing from our retirement funds. The scandal is that some in Congress do not want to pay us back.

Proponents of cutting Social Security say it is broke. And many news anchors back them up. Many news shows tell us that Social Security paid out more in 2012 than it brought in. But that is not the whole picture.

Think about it this way:

What if I told you my annual income is only $4,000, without mentioning that I have a million bucks tucked away in the bank? I’m giving you an inaccurate picture of my finances because I’m only giving you some of the facts.

It is true that the trust fund will only be able to pay 75 percent of benefits in 25 years if no changes are made. But many changes have been made to Social Security in the past without causing the kind of panic news reports caused in 2012.

The Social Security Trust Fund has been growing for many years. It is now worth $2.7 trillion. That’s trillion, not billion.

Three sources of revenue contributed to this massive surplus. The first is worker and employer payroll contributions (you are familiar with these). The second is federal income taxes paid by some beneficiaries on a portion of their benefits, and the third is income from interest earned on Social Security Trust Fund investments in treasury bonds.

Social Security is not broke. But it may need some changes. Cutting benefits should not be one of them.

The average woman age 65 or over has an annual income of only $15,000, nearly all of it from Social Security. Even a small cut means she must turn down the heat or skip meals just to get by. Cutting Social Security benefits means we protect corporations and affluent citizens instead of the average American.

There are better ways to reduce the nation’s debt.

For instance: If we eliminate the $113,700 income cap on Social Security payroll contributions, all Americans will contribute at the same rate. Not a bad idea. It’s certainly fair.

And here’s another no-brainer for reducing the deficit: Allow Medicare to negotiate discounts on prescription drugs. With 42 million beneficiaries, Medicare should be able to get a break, right? That will save $200 billion over 10 years.

The question is: Will Congress stand up for such common sense ideas? Or will it stand up for corporate and personal wealth instead of the average person?

Keep your eyes open and we will see, as Congress heads into another series of rugged fiscal confrontations in February and March.

We urge Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King to do the right thing.

Don Berry is president of the Maine Alliance for Retired Americans and Terry Lochhead is a senior field organizer.