Obama's initiative rests on two falsehoods spread by Peterson's propaganda—the notion that Social Security somehow contributes to the swollen federal deficits and that cutting benefits will address this problem. Obama and his advisers do not say this in so many words, but their rhetoric implies that Social Security is a big source of the deficit problem. Major media promote the same falsehoods. Here is what the media don't tell you: Social Security has accumulated a massive surplus—$2.5 trillion now, rising to $4.3 trillion by 2023. This vast wealth was collected over many years from workers under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) to pay in advance for baby boom retirements. The money will cover all benefits until the 2040s—unless Congress double-crosses workers by changing the rules. This nest egg does not belong to the government; it belongs to the people who paid for it. FICA is not a tax but involuntary savings.

In February 2005, President Bush, in several speeches to arouse supports for Social Security, Private Retirements Accounts (PRA); said this:

"As a matter of fact, in 2018, the system goes into the red. And by the way, there's not a Social Security trust. In other words, people think your money goes into the trust and it's held for your account and then you get it out. That's not the way it works. It's pay as you go. It goes in and it goes out. And to the extent that there's money more than the retirees receive, like it is today, it goes to other programs. And so, what you've got is an IOU, kind of a bank of IOUs. It's an important concept."

President Clinton said this: "Trust Fund balances are available to finance future benefits...but only in a bookkeeping sense...they do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits. Instead, they are claims on the Treasury that, when redeemed, will have to be financed by raising taxes or borrowing." --President Bill Clinton in his Analytical Perspectives section of the 2000 budget.

June O'Neill, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) at the CATO Institute's Conference for Women and Social Security: "It holds no real assets. Consequently, it does not generate funds to pay future benefits. These so-called trust fund 'assets' simply reflect the accumulated sum of funds transferred from Social Security over the years to finance other government operations," ... ssi myths