If Social Security was a private corporation, Tim Russert would be unemployed and NBC would be out of business. (When you misrepresent the financial state of a private business in the way that Russert misrepresents the financial state of Social Security, you get sued for libel.) Note how the fact that Social Security, Medicare, and everything else that fits under �entitlements� becomes a Social Security problem, as Russert points out that entitlements account for 52 percent of the budget, approaching 70 percent. (I believe that these percentages exclude interest payments, but it's not clear where Russert is getting these numbers.) Note that Mr. Russert ignores the fact that Social Security is funded by a designated tax that will keep the program fully funded until 2046, according to the most recent projections of the Congressional Budget Office. Many people, including me, have tried to call Russert�s attention to the actual numbers on Social Security � he obviously does not care. He wants to cut the program and he will not let the evidence stand in his way. And, he has absolutely no hesitation about deliberately misrepresenting the facts on national television to advance his agenda.
--Dean Baker
