A few weeks ago Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wrote in USA Today that social security is solvent until 2037. Therefore, the narrative goes, there is no need to even consider social security in current budget negotiations. I have since heard the same claim made by several journalists and pundits on the left.
Lew was also OMB director in the last couple of years of the Clinton administration. Back then, he sang a different tune. When discussing the fiscal 2000 budget, then-director Lew said that social security trust fund balances were nothing more than a "bookkeeping" device. He said “They do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits.” Then, he was telling the truth. There was, and is, nothing in the "trust fund" but a government IOU that can only be redeemed by taxing or borrowing. Contrary to the tale being spun by the left, social security is already a drain on budgets. As baby boomers start retiring, the burden will quickly become severe. And Lew damn well knows it.
Why, then, is Lew lying through his teeth now? Do they actually want the economy to implode?
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