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Bush makes a big stink about the date that Social Security will go into deficit. His point is that it will then be a huge drain on the government's budget.

Let's just see what that "drain" will look like, compared to Bush's other spending habits. Here's the projected budget deficit, with how the Social Security surplus/deficit affects it, as a percentage of GDP:

See where the line crosses in 2017, and that tiny little sliver that it creates? That's the "drain" that Bush is so concerned about. That's how dishonest he is. He not only ignores the size of the general budget deficit, but adds to it. Then he ignores the Social Security trust fund, and insists that its deficit, which is miniscule compared to the size of the budget deficit, requires that we cut Social Security benefits. He's nothing but a swindler.

The data uses:

• Historical budget data from the CBO
• Budget projections from the GAO, assuming the tax cuts are made permanent (a fair assumption given that the House just passed the estate tax bill)
• SSA Trustee projections for 2005, intermediate projections