Henry Paulson, Chicken Little and Social Security

Henry Paulson is at ground zero of the current debate over a $700 billion bailout proposal for Wall Street. But it’s interesting to note that not long ago, Paulson was callling Social Security “financially unsustainable” after releasing a report detailing the program’s so-called funding shortfalls.

Paulson’s report might have been good fodder for those wishing to privatize Social Security by investing its funds in the stock market – and idea that has…lost a bit of currency…lately. But there was a deeper problem, as EOI’s Executive Director John Burbank (now on leave) pointed out in a 2007 column:

The financial reality of Social Security is much different than Paulson’s would have people believe, though it is wrapped in the seemingly authoritative and neutral language of a policy brief from the Treasury.

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