Like so many other Republicans, [Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH)] was looking for a way to pretend that Social Security’s day of reckoning was disturbingly near at hand. According to the CBO, Social Security can pay full benefits through the year 2052. But it’s hard to get people worked up about that, so fakers like Gregg keep torturing facts to produce a sense of impending disaster. …
The surplus will be getting smaller each year—but duh! At this point, it will still be a surplus! In 2015, the surplus will be $85 billion, which is bigger than the surplus this year! But Gregg wanted to produce a sense of disaster. So that’s when he started to torture his facts to produce a disturbing conclusion:
GREGG: This is significant because every dollar collected in payroll taxes is spent, including the surplus. So in 2011, when budget writers are looking at the fiscal 2012 budget, they can count on less Social Security dollars to pad other spending, and the rest of the budget will begin to feel the pinch.
That means defense, education, federal highways, environmental programs—every other area of government will be impacted.
This will happen not in 2018, not in 2042, but just six years from now when Congress will have to make choices between Social Security benefits and other programs. People need to understand this reality.
“People need to understand this reality,” Gregg said—even as he did his best to confuse, mislead and scare them. …
Say what? If you know anything at all about the SS debate, you know [this] claim is inaccurate. Everyone has read, a thousand times, the current projection of the SS trustees—the payroll tax will produce an annual surplus through the year 2018. The CBO says 2020.