I've been following his posts, and a lot of his sources are Social Security officials, so take that for what it's worth. When it gets down to it, you're still financing a retirement program on borrowed money even if you leave the system as is.

You are right that Medicare is a much bigger problem, by almost five times the accumulated debt. Oddly, the response I've seen from some leftist bloggers is that we should immediately go to a single-payer system. In other words, to save Medicare's financial situation, add a couple hundred million more Americans to the government medical rolls. Huh? Oh, it will be more efficient? Will it now? Reminds me of the old joke:

"You're selling all your products at a loss! How do you make money?"

"Volume!"

Any politician who proposes a new entitlement, given the near-cancerous growth and financial burdens created by the existing ones, needs a good kick in the ass. Including Bush and his prescription drug coverage, which has the dubious virtue of being somewhat less of a budget killer than the original Democratic proposal would have been.