Assetmgrsc

Government Statistics: Perfecting the Art of Mass Deception

I think that Mr. Blackman writes on an important subject and he is basically correct. What he doesn't touch on is the powerful reason why all the "people in the know" look the other way: which is that Congress passed unsupportable automatic increases in SS keyed to inflation. They knew that these increases were busting the budget after a couple of decades, but they did not have the courage to reduce the automatic pay raises that millions of SS retirees and the AARP would fight to defend. Millions more also key their requests to the same inflation numbers, so they took the easy way out. They changed the way inflation is calculated and eased the growth of SS and the pressure for wage increases to keep up -- all in one fell swoop, without any debate or any Congressmen loosing their jobs. As bad as Congress has been on this issue, it points out how spoiled and undisciplined the American voter is.