Okay, it's not big news. But it's big for me. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a
diary here at Kos on how the GOP is raising $100 million to promote Social Security piratization, and in it I made mention of the Washington Post's presumption that "the only point [Republicans and Democrats] agree on is that Social Security faces a long-term financial problem because the U.S. population is growing older, living longer and, sometime next decade, will be taking more out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it."
I urged everyone to write the WaPo and protest this assumption, and so as not to look like a complete hypocrite, I wrote a letter of my own. Enough people must've written and pointed it out to them, because they thought it important enough to redress, and so they printed my letter on Monday:
(more below the jump)
Crunching Numbers, and Motives, on Social Security
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A14
In his Jan. 1 front-page article, "A Big Push on Social Security," Jim VandeHei said Democrats and Republicans agree that "sometime next decade," the aging population will be "taking more out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it."
This statement is misleading. Nothing is wrong with Social Security; according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the system will be able to pay full benefits until 2052. The only thing "wrong" is that Congress keeps raiding the piggy bank to pay for other programs.
Jane Hamsher
Granted, it's a bit of minutiae patrol, but it's an incremental war. I sincerely think that BushCo.'s plan to loot Social Security is going down in paroxyms of "mandate" humiliation, and I'm happy as hell when we can play even a small part in it.