Putting It Into Perspective
When I started off at St. Olaf College way back in the dark ages of the mid-80s, I was going to be an Economics major and focus on advertising. However, after my first Econ and Accounting classes, I realized that numbers just weren't my bag, and I ran like a whimpering puppy to any Humanities that would have me. Since starting this blog, I've surprised myself at how wonkily interested I've become in economic matters and how much more I understand of it (I guess not having to worry about girls, beer, tests, and girls helps one's focus). Still, the debate over Social Security is confusing (especially when you throw in talks of trillions and varying projections, etc.), so I was quite thrilled to see Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo put this fiscal crisis into a very plain comparison some other Bush administration initiatives:

The Social Security Trustees estimate that over the next 75 years the program faces a budget shortfall of $3.7 trillion.
[...]
But how much will the president's Medicare drug benefit plan cost over the next 75 years?

$8.1 trillion, say the Trustees of that program.

And over the next 75 years how much will the president's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts cost if made permanent, as the president wants?

$11.6 trillion.

So you add that up and you get $3.7 trillion we need to cover Social Security's shortfall and $19.7 trillion we need just to cover the costs of the two major domestic policy initiatives of the president's first term.

And yet Social Security, says the president, is in crisis and destined to chew through the rest of the federal budget.