I Never Said "Lie"

The Social Security trustees issued their annual report yesterday and according to them, the shortfall in Social Security's finances jumped from $10.4 trillion last year to about $11 trillion this year. That’s eleven trillion dollars! The trustees, 5 Republicans and 1 Democrat, are trying to sell misleading (Define “misleading”) numbers.

The sell begins with deceit (Define “deceit”) by using that $10.4 trillion figure. That number is arrived at by projecting the system's shortfall over infinity, rather than the usual 75-year time frame - as if the system's finances 10,000 years from now are of any concern. Are you worried about the state of the national debt in the year 12,005? Should you be?

The American Academy of Actuaries is already on record regarding infinite projections as they convey "little if any useful information about the program's long-range finances" and are, "likely to mislead anyone lacking technical expertise ... into believing that the program is in far worse financial condition than is actually indicated."

Compounding the subterfuge (Define “subterfuge”) is that the difference between this year's $11 trillion number and last year's number - $600 billion - is being used as evidence of a huge deterioration in Social Security's finances. That's just wrong (Define “wrong”). The two numbers are actually the same quantity, explained this way, “- different ways of expressing an unchanging level of debt at two different points in time. If you owe someone $1,000 in 10 years, for instance, you could retire the debt now with $500, or next year with $530. Your level of debt doesn't change, just the time point.”

Mr. Bush's misstatements (Define “misstatements”) regarding the Social Security system leave no doubt that he wants us to believe that the system is broken so that we will buy into his plan.

Let's revisit this idea in the year 12,005...