Sure they do; they change the magnitude and imminence of it. If you say there's a trillion dollar liability over the next 50 years, that's less scary than saying there's a trillion dollar liability over the next 5 years.
By framing the liability, or "issue", as an immediate problem by using baseline revenues from when the economy was slumping, you're creating an artificial environment of fear that is going to serve other nefarious goals.
Fact is, whether you think it was a good deal or not, the state is obligated to pay the benefits it agreed to. If there's a shortfall, the simple solution is to raise revenues in order to meet that. If the shortfall isn't for 10 years, then the immediate need becomes less immediate. if the shortfall is over 50 years, then the immediate need is not immediate at all, and you're using it to gin up panicky fear in order to extract cuts according to your ideologically narrow beliefs.
It's no different than passing tax cuts, then screaming your head off about the deficits your tax cuts caused.