Once again The Day published a "visual sound bite," this time on Feb. 6, by cartoonist Lisa Benson, purporting to show that Social Security will be bankrupt when boomers need it. This is false.

A detailed analysis of the Trustees' Report on its finances, published by the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2010, shows that surpluses in the system will grow to $4.2 trillion by 2025. Thereafter, there will be progressive drawdown in the reserve, due to the increase in the number of beneficiaries until in 2037; revenues from payroll tax will cover only 78 percent of the benefits to be paid. A problem, but hardly a crisis.

The cartoon, on the other hand, suggests that a cataclysm is at hand.

Why mislead the readers with such stuff? There are those who would exploit such misinformation to attack the concept of social insurance by privatizing it, exposing it to the risk of real financial meltdown or scrapping it altogether.

I would love someone at The Day to share with the readers how it decides which cartoons to publish. The product frequently clashes with the tone of Day editorials on these matters, which seems otherwise pretty reasonable to me.

Editor's note: The Day seeks to publish on its editorial pages political cartoons reflecting a variety of opinions across the political scale. We recognize that the message conveyed by the cartoonists does at times run counter to our own editorial opinions. Such a clash of ideas is the very essence of political debate. As for the accuracy of the cartoon's meaning, The Day realizes political cartoonists often paint their opinions with a wide brush and provides them the latitude to do so.