Addendum

When I wrote this morning's post I had not seen two articles by Nicholas Confessore and Roger Lowenstein in yesterday's New York Times Magazine dealing with the same issues. Both are interesting, but I have no note that Lowenstein, who wrote on Bush Administration plans for the tax code, didn't mention the extraordinary fall in personal and corporate income tax receipts over the last four years and the increased role of the payroll tax in paying for the deficit. Nor did Confessore, while reporting that critics argue that the Trust Fund is worthless, mention that the US Constitution guarantees it--although he did mention that the Social Security Administration has been able to draw on the Trust Fund as necessary in years past. In any case, I urge anyone interested in these issues to read those articles as well.