Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
"Our society has changed in ways the founders of Social Security could not have foreseen. In today's world, people are living longer and therefore drawing benefits longer - and those benefits are scheduled to rise dramatically over the next few decades."
George W. Bush
State of the Union Address
February 2nd, 2005
"In 1934, when Franklin Roosevelt formed the Committee on Economic Security to design what was in effect the first federal safety net, the committee hired three actuaries to stargaze into the future. The actuaries predicted that the proportion of Americans over 65 -- then only 5.4 percent -- would rise to 12.65 percent in 1990, meaning that retiree costs would soar. They were just a tad high; the actual figure would be 12.49 percent."
Roger Lowenstein
New York Times Magazine
January 16th, 2005
[courtesy of TPM]
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Since when was SS founded by actuaries?
I was actually pleasantly surprised by the speech. The agenda for the next 4 years is very bold and I think he at least communicated that he is willing to consider ideas from all sources in order to attempt to deal with some difficult issues.
I will say though that he, like nearly every other President, really pisses me off by saying early in the speech "We are going to hold increases in non-discretionary spending to below inflation" and then proceeding to speak for the next hour on all the new spending initiatives.
