Accounting board urges honesty in stating Social Security costs

From the Houston Chronicle – “Social Security accounting change sought”:

Advocates of a change in how the books are kept on future Social Security and Medicare benefits say Americans need a better sense of the government's fiscal health.
The change, if approved, would have no impact on benefits themselves. It would, however, show just how much the social programs truly cost, which proponents say would highlight the need to find long-term fiscal fixes.

Yes!

The move is the brainchild of an obscure panel, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, that is recommending how the government should maintain its books. Bush administration representatives on the board are adamantly opposed to the proposal and could kill it.

No! What?

However, administration and other government officials on the advisory board say such a system wouldn't paint an accurate long-term fiscal picture. And, they say, current calculations of federal retirement benefits are in no way a legal contract like a private-sector pension plan.

Ha! Oh, yeah, those private pension “contracts” are super-safe and all legal-like. From today’s Boston Globe, here’s economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff with “The Great Pension Swindle”:

Over 1 million private pension participants have seen their pension funds go belly-up. Their pension benefits are "guaranteed" by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), a government-established insurance company. But since the corporation limits the amount of benefits it insures, most of these participants have seen or will see tremendous benefit cuts. And there's no guarantee of the PBGC's "guarantee." The corporation is already short $23 billion and needs another $150 billion to deal with pending defaults.

Excuse me while I check my 401(k). It’s been heading up lately and it might go down again, but it will always be my money.

More – From the Heritage blog: “Tough new accounting rules proposed”