However, here is what Geithner wrote about the incident in his new memoir, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises:

It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute. Pfeiffer said the line was a ‘dog whistle’ to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security.