I keep hearing this lie...

I heard it again this morning on the Diane Rehm show, theoretically a place where issues get discussed seriously, by serious people. The lie was included in passing, as part of a summary of the Big Four areas of Federal spending: Defense, Social Security, Medicare, and ... but I'd stopped listening, because there's that lie again, about Social Security being part of the Federal budget problem.

Social Security is a solvent program, having addressed its demographic issues back in the 1980s with increased FICA taxes paid by every working person, as a result of the Greenspan Commission, convened under Ronald Reagan.

All Social Security does to the Federal budget at this point is fail to continue buying new T-bills as old ones mature, thus taking itself out of the pool of global lenders. You can only fight so many wars, bail out so many megabanks, and cut so many rich people's taxes, all on borrowed money, before Stein's Law begins to apply.

Speaking of Social Security as part of the budget problem is disingenuous and deceptive, and arguably part of a campaign of lies intended to steal from the middle class so as not to disturb the ultra-rich and their sense of entitlement to their staggering piles of wealth.