Treasury Secretary John Snow has published an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) in which he uses the exact same strategy I flagged earlier — implying that Social Security will stop paying out any benefits in 2042 when it exhausts the trust fund:

The current system will pay out more in benefits than it brings in revenue beginning in 2018 and shortfalls will grow larger with each year. By 2042, when workers in their 20s today begin to retire, the system will be bankrupt, meaning that it cannot fulfill the scheduled benefits.

Calling the system “bankrupt” and saying “it cannot fulfill the scheduled benefits” clearly implies that no benefits will be paid out. Snow never clarifies that Social Security will be able to continue paying out more than 70 percent of promised benefits. This is a nasty sleight-of-hand.