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Twisting the knife a little bit

          I've been pretty busy at work the past few days. Lots to do, and no time to do it in. I've already got a fisking of Gene Lyons from Lonnie in the pipeline. I just need to edit his stuff and make it more readable. Funny guy, but sometimes his writings give me a headache from all of the bad grammar and atrocious spelling. I also do some research for him, filling in most of the links and other things like that. It should be ready sometime fairly soon. It's going to depend on how much time I get to go over it.
          In the meantime, something has been bothering me about something in a fisking he gave a while back. Gene Lyons wrote:

One Democratic presidential candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, appears to be basing his campaign on this fond delusion, although his “bipartisanship” consists largely of attacking rivals’ motives while recycling right-wing scare stories like the imaginary Social Security crisis, then offering himself as a healer.

           I always meant to find some sort of evidence to back up Lonnie's laughter at Gene. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any one link or facts that was simple to understand, yet authoritative. It bothered me to not be able to be able to supplement that with any facts or figures, but I was wanting to get that out in a timely manner. So I had to let it slip by and posted it anyway.
          So, I went to the mailbox the other day, and what do I find? Why, just my annual bulletin from the good folks at the Social Security Administration. And what was in this bulletin? Allow me to quote.

"Social Security is a compact between generations. For decades, America has kept the promise of security for its workers and their families. Now, however, the Social Security system is facing serious financial problems, and action is need soon to make sure the system will be sound when today's younger workers are ready for retirement.
In 2017 we will begin paying more in benefits than we collect in taxes. Without changes, by 2041 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted* and there will be enough money to pay only about 75 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits. We need to resolve these issues soon to make sure Social Security continues to provide a foundation of protection for future generations."

Hmm, very interesting. Must be that evil cabal of right-wingers forcing those poor innocent waifs at the Social Security office to... wait, what's that little asterisk there in that quote? Let's see here....