Trying to Spin Themselves Out of a Job?

More than 4,000 pages of "documents relating to the communications strategy of the Social Security Administration," reveal that the SSA "has markedly changed its communications to the public over the last four years," reports the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform. "While estimates of Social Security's long-term solvency have improved over the last four years, the [SSA's] rhetoric has moved in the opposite direction." Previously described as a program that keeps seniors "out of poverty" and is in "no immediate crisis," Social Security is now portrayed as an "unsustainable," "underfinanced" program that "must change." The differences "reflect a growing politicization of the [SSA]" and raise "questions about [its] political independence," states the report.