In a discussion of the problems in Washington, NPR allowed John Harwood and Gerald F. Seib, two authors of a new book, to repeatedly use Social Security as an example of a crisis that was not being dealt with. It is rather bizarre to call the situation facing Social Security a crisis, since the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the program can pay all benefits for the next 38 years with no changes whatsoever. Even after that date, the CBO projections show that the program could always pay higher benefits (adjusted for inflation) than what workers receive today.
The host should have interrogated the authors about their definition of crisis and pointed out that their main complaint was that Congress would not approve their political agenda.
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