EDITORIAL:

Social Security "Reform": Bush's Fraudulent Diversion

Meanwhile, he is hoping the people won't notice that we have now passed 1,500 American casualties in Iraq, even the Shiites are discussing whether it would be better to break up Iraq, all factions in Iraq agree that the Americans should leave sooner rather than later, the European Union is still not really throwing its money in (or troops), we are approaching $300 billion in spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israel truce could come apart again at any moment, Blair rebuffs us on global warming, we can't get off our hands on Darfur, Greenspan says we are in unsustainable debt, India and China will out-compete us for oil, and most of our rights including the right to sue are being stripped away as the massive corporate giveaways continue.

Other than that and a few dozen other worthy problems, it makes a lot of sense for the President to concentrate on a non-problem. Let's fix something that doesn't need fixing. He should have been a sleight-of-hand magician.

Listen carefully to Bush's statement on Social Security, pin-pointing the year 2018 as when we go into "crisis." Well, even if new money coming in were to exceed money going out around about this time—it's hard to make accurate projections that far into the future—that's not the whole story by any means.

The big thing Bush is not talking about is Social Security's surplus of $1.6 trillion in interest-bearing bonds. This interest will easily keep the Social Security account adequately funded until 2042 or 2052 (if you take the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office).

Surely, Bush must know that money earns money, and that US Treasury bonds are a quantum amount safer than any stock portfolio could ever be. Surely our MBA President must know of "beta risk." If not, maybe he should go back to Yale for remedial work--they could walk him through the Yale endowment as a model.

What's necessary in this bogus "debate" is to understand the concept of cash flow. Think of trying to keep a certain level of water in the national bathtub that has no stopper in the drain. Trouble is, there's a great sucking sound coming from the Middle East. The water's flowing out faster than it's being replenished.

The US fiscal situation may be critical, all right, but it is not--we repeat, not--because of old folks living on Social Security who are making choices between medicine or dog food.