<<The Bush administration's commission on Social Security reform issued its latest
report last week, just as Enron entered its death throes. Most of the criticism of that
commission's work, my own included, has focused on its, yes, Enron-like
accounting: items seem to migrate onto or off the balance sheet to suit the
commission's convenience. Thus when the Social Security system takes in more
money than it pays out, as it does at present, this has no significance — the federal
budget is unified, you see, so it doesn't mean anything when one particular piece of it
is in surplus. But in 2016, when the Social Security system starts to pay out more
than it takes in, there will be a crisis — Social Security, you see, must stand on its
own.
But the commission resorts to bogus accounting only to make the case ...>>
nytimes.com |
