The Washington Post editors, along with most of its columnists, have long advocated cutting and/or privatizing Social Security. Unfortunately, this position infects their news reporting as well, as illustrated with a front page story discussiong the alternative minimum tax. The article lists a set of “ticking time bombs set to explode soon after the 2008 presidential election.” Yes, this list includes Social Security.

Well, if anyone at the Post had access to the CBO website they would know that the program will be running an annual surplus of more than $200 billion at that point and is projected to continue to running large surpluses for more than a decade after 2008. And, its accumulated surplus is projected to be suffiicient to keep the program fully solvent until 2046 with no changes whatsover.

I guess the Post is trying to give new meaning to the word “soon.”

–Dean Baker

Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.