Why, oh why, can't we have a better press corps, Social Sec. edition #5,648

It's always amazing how, while Republicans are in power, there's nary a word from the Fed Chief about the danger of deficits, but when Democrats are in control of the purse strings, we suddenly find our children’s' futures have been mortgaged to the Chinese.

With apologies to Brad DeLong, once again the A.P.'s "economics writer" covers this as if it's a gospel fact that unless we "fix (and we all know what 'fix' means)" Social Security, like, yesterday, there will be nothing for us poor baby boomers to live on, and cat food can get so expensive.

President Bush wants to work on the looming insolvency of the Social Security program. But his one-time plan to add private accounts to the system, once the centerpiece of his second-term agenda, withered in 2005 after meeting resistance from Democrats and Republicans alike. Bush has tapped Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to gather ideas on how to restructure the program.

No, President Bush doesn't want to work on the "looming insolvencey" of the program. He wants to eliminate the program in favor of "private accounts." Let's get that straight. And as for the "looming insolvency," that sounds a lot like that mushroom cloud imminently expected just prior to our invasion of Iraq.

According to the assumptions of the Social Security Administration's chief actuary, the current system can pay out full benefits until the year 2042, when the Trust Fund will be exhausted. And even then, the chief actuary predicts that without any tax increases, Social Security can still continue to pay 73 percent of promised benefits, though that figure would fall each year thereafter, reaching only 68 percent by 2078.

The Congressional Budget Office is even less pessimistic about the system's finances, predicting it won't go "in the red" with benefits exceeding taxes until 2020, two years later than the actuary predicts. CBO also projects that the Trust Fund will last an additional 10 years, drying up in 2052. At that point CBO forecasts that the system can pay 78 percent of what beneficiaries are owed under current law.

And that's without any changes to the current system, such as minor "tweaks" like eliminating the salary cap on Soc. Sec. taxes or by the inevitable rising of the retirement age. And, of course, there's Al Gore's "lock box," so widely derided by our Washington humorists, otherwise known as economics journalists.

Can we try, Jeannine Aversa to get that right for a change, and stop acting as chief spokesperson for private accounts?

UPDATE: Here's another sermon on the subject that you should read.