Orszag strikes out as Social Security goes bankrupt

Before he came to Obama's Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag used to work for the Congressional Budget Office. While there, Orszag warned that Social Security would start running deficits in 2019 unless the system is reformed. Orszag was off by about 3,285 days. The New York Times is reporting that as of today, Social Security is officially producing red ink.

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that while the Congressional projection would probably be borne out, the change would have no effect on benefits in 2010 and retirees would keep receiving their checks as usual.

With the Obama Administration having done nothing to help create jobs, somewhere near 20% of the country is estimated to be unemployed or underemployed. Those people are paying little to nothing to the Social Security Administration, which has rapidly accelerated its collapse. Turns out you actually need people to be productive in order to tax them. And with the economy already teetering on top of massive debt and a $1 trillion health care bill on the way, Social Security recipients will find there isn't very much money left to go around. The program could go bust any day at this point.

The same CBO that miscalculated Social Security's red ink by nine years also claimed the health care bill would reduce the deficit. Its former oracle, Orszag, now has the president's ear on all budget matters.