Social Security cooking the books as we speak?

Social Security Administration now says it will issue its annual report on May 1, a month after the legal deadline. Watch for the tricks. With the economy supposedly humming along, the measurements used in the actuarial projections probably improved, which means that projections of the year the Social Security surplus will run out probably would move still further out into the future than they had been in recent years. (Little known facts even with the debate: [1] the supposed year of reckoning had been extending further out into the future -- i.e., no "crisis" -- for all or most of the 90's into the early 2000s (until Bush wanted to make it an issue); and [2] the Social Security surplus was expressly designed for the baby boom bulge, and was intended to be used up when the baby boomer crisis ended -- like a college fund to be used up for college!)

With this Administration, suspicions that it is looking for ways to cook the books to avoid reporting that result – that the Social Security “crisis” (which never existed) is further away than ever, at least 40 or so years – are inevitable. Because there is a statutory deadline that as far as I know has always been met until now, you can bet the professional staff produced a final draft in plenty of time. But I believe Bush has succeeded in politicizing the Trustees through his appointment powers. It’s at least an 80-20 bet they didn’t like the staff’s findings, because they would bring more embarrassment to the Administration.