Monday, January 3, 2005
Bush's Claims on Social Security: Bullshit...
In a terrific editorial, The New York Times explains why the core tenet of Bush's claims of a looming Social Security crisis is total bubkis...
If you've lent even one ear to the administration's recent comments on Social Security, you have no doubt heard President Bush and his aides asserting that a $10 trillion shortfall threatens the retirement system - and the economy itself. That $10 trillion hole is the basis of the president's claim last month that "the [Social Security] crisis is now." It's also the basis of the administration's claim that the cost of doing nothing to reform the system would be far greater than the cost of acting now.
Well, the $10 trillion figure is the closest you can get to pulling a number out of the air. Make that the ether. Starting last year, as the groundwork was being set for the emerging debate, the Social Security trustees took the liberty of projecting the system's solvency over infinity, rather than sticking to the traditional 75-year time horizon. That world-without-end assumption generates the scary $10 trillion estimate, and with it, Mr. Bush's putative rationale for dismantling Social Security in favor of a system centered on private savings accounts.
A prediction for 2005: "Social Security crisis" will replace "Weapons of Mass Destruction" as Bush's #1 fear-inducing phrase this year...
For more awesome 2005 predictions, check this out...
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