Wooohooo! My letter gets published in the WaPo!
Okay, it's not big news. But it's big for me. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on how the GOP is raising $100 million to promote Social Security piratization, and in it I made mention of the Washington Post's presumption that "the only point [Republicans and Democrats] agree on is that Social Security faces a long-term financial problem because the U.S. population is growing older, living longer and, sometime next decade, will be taking more out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it."
I urged everyone to write the WaPo and protest this assumption, and so as not to look like a complete hypocrite, I wrote a letter of my own. They printed it on Monday:
Crunching Numbers, and Motives, on Social Security
Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A14
In his Jan. 1 front-page article, "A Big Push on Social Security," Jim VandeHei said Democrats and Republicans agree that "sometime next decade," the aging population will be "taking more out of the system in benefits than it is paying in taxes that fund it."
This statement is misleading. Nothing is wrong with Social Security; according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the system will be able to pay full benefits until 2052. The only thing "wrong" is that Congress keeps raiding the piggy bank to pay for other programs.
JANE HAMSHER
Granted, it's a bit of minutiae patrol. But I sincerely think that BushCo.'s plan to loot Social Security is going tits up, and I'm happy as hell to pay a teeny part in it.
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 1/26/2005 01:10:00 AM
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