WASHINGTON, June 14 -- The Trump administration's Social Security commissioner has a number he wants the country to focus on, and it is a good one. Frank Bisignano has been telling Congress and the press that the average time to answer a call to the agency's helpline has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, under five minutes in May, down from an all-time high of forty-two. It is a real improvement, and on its own it sounds like a turnaround. The trouble is everything the number is standing in front of: an agency that has been cut to the bone, a backlog that has grown, and a proposed rule that would take money from the people least able to lose it.

Start with the claim itself, which the administration has pushed hard. As The Washingto...