Creative Accountery

by digby

Evidently, in his memoir “Decision Points”, George W. Bush has great regrets about his failed plan to “reform” social security and blames it on Democratic partisanship. He says:

“The shortfall in Social Security – the cost of fixing the problem – has grown more than $2 trillion since I raised the issue in 2005. That is more than we spent on the war in Iraq, Medicare modernization, and the Troubled Asset Relief Program combined …the failure to reform Social Security ranks among the most expensive missed opportunities of modern times.”

Dean Baker explains via email why (once again) GWB is a dolt:

The increase in the size of the SS shortfall is primarily due to the fact that we are using different dollars. If you take the infinite horizon shortfall in 2010 dollars, as opposed to 2005 dollars, it would be about 15 percent more. that buys you most of the way to $2 trillion.

I would dump more on Republican accounting, but in Democratic TARP accounting, if we make trillions of dollar of loans at below market interest rates, and then get the loans paid back with interest, we have made a profit.

Of course this suggests a simple way to solve the SS shortfall and made a profit in the process. Let’s lend the SS trust fund $2 trillion at 1 percent interest. It can buy 30-year Treasuries at 4.0 percent and pocket the $60 billion difference each year. This would be almost enough to eliminate the 75-year shortfall and by Timothy Geithner accounting, the government is making a profit.

What is not to like?

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