Let's assume Al Gore eliminates the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Education, raises the top tax rate to 50%, and comes up with $500B to dump into Social Security: one-half a trillion of non-marketable IOU's down, another two-and-one-half trillion to go. In the meantime, capital flees the country and the dollar plunges, along with the present-day payroll contributions which are the only thing keeping the scam afloat.
Social Security cannot be saved or even reformed. It is an inflationary time bomb about to explode.
I agree with you that Bush is being disingenuous. However, so is any politician who tells you that this Ponzi scheme can be salvaged.
O.K., so when is SS going to explode? In the 1980's Reagan told us it would explode in a few years. In the 1990's the Repukes told us it would explode by 2010. Now, GWB's Repuke-dominated SS commission claims expenses will exceed income by 2017 and the trust fund will run out by 2035. You get the pattern.
The SS system can survive indefinitely, so long as future recipients are willing to settle for smaller increases in payments than they have enjoyed over the past 40 years, and the federal government retains sufficient liquidity to smooth over any short term crises. Don't be fooled by pessimistic predicitons of shortsighted Repuke politicians, GWB included.