On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 22:44:16 GMT, "Vaughn"
wrote:

The word that keeps entering my mind when I hear the administration's statements on Social Security is "Disconnect".
There is a "Disconnect" between the rhetoric of doom and the reality of the situation; SS is neither going "Bankrupt" nor "Bust" any time in the next few decades. A manageable change (or a package of small changes) made right now would keep it in the black for the forseeable future.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Poli...C-RSSFeeds0312
Analysts: Social Security OK 'Til 2020
Budget Office Says Social Security Will Start Losing Money in 2020,
Later Than Earlier Estimate
By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent
The Associated PressThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON Jan 31, 2005 — The Social Security system will take in more
money annually than it pays out in benefits until 2020, two years
later than earlier estimated, the Congressional Budget Office reported
Monday in a modest change unlikely to alter the growing political
debate over the program.

Congress' budget analysts also estimated the program's trust funds
will be depleted in 2052, "meaning that beneficiaries will be able to
count on receiving only 78 percent of their scheduled benefits
beginning then.

"After the trust funds are exhausted, Social Security spending cannot
exceed annual revenues," the analysts said. "As a consequence …
benefits paid will be 22 percent lower than the scheduled benefits."

In both cases, the CBO estimates are more optimistic than the most
recent projections made by the Social Security Board of Trustees. In
the annual report it issued last March, the board said annual income
would fall behind benefit payments beginning in 2018, and the trust
funds would be empty in 2042.


" We have all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million
typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of
Shakespeare...Thanks to AOL and WebTv, we know this is not possible."