"The report of my death was an exaggeration."

I was reminded of Mark Twain's immortal words while reading Krugman this morning. In it, he speaks slowly, patiently and without too many big words so that we can all understand that the Social Security "crisis" is a canard foisted on us by conservatives who hate the program and will do all they can to blow it up.

"After Alan Greenspan's call for cuts in Social Security benefits, Republican members of Congress declared that the answer is to create private retirement accounts. It's amazing that they are still peddling this snake oil; it's even more amazing that journalists continue to let them get away with it. Yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, a writer judiciously declared that 'personal accounts alone won't cure Social Security's ills.' I guess that's true; similarly, eating doughnuts alone won't cause you to lose weight. Why is it so hard to say clearly that privatization would worsen, not improve, Social Security's finances?

"Should we consider modest reforms that reduce the expenses or widen the revenue base of Social Security? Sure. But beware of those who claim that we must destroy the system in order to save it."

Paul Krugman for Sect'y of the Treasury.