SocSec

David sent out a mass email telling people about this FactCheck.org article. It's a bit cryptic to me, but it looks like the Bush administration citations of an $11B shortfall in Social Security is a number based on an infinite projection into the future. In mathematical terms, it sounds like they're integrating from now to inifity. Previously, Social Security only attempted to forecast 75 years into the future.

This is, of course, an outragous attempt at deception. The idea that we can reliably forecast the economic state of our nation 100+ years into the future is ludicrous. The idea that we should basically eliminate the Social Security program in response to this is criminal. That's like expecting an accountant in pre-Great-Depression times to have forecast the Internet boom.

But all this makes no difference. It is taken as axiomatic in the news these days that Social Security is about to collapse under its own weight any day now. As usual, in this administration, the messaging trumps the message. So expect to see this $11B number thrown about a LOT on Fox News.

There is a bit of resistance to this attempt at deception, however. There's the FactCheck article, and now a website dedicated to getting the word out: