Outrageous Bush Social Security Lie

[petardier]

I was listening to NPR yesterday when they reported on Bush's trip in support of his Social Security agenda. They played a clip of Bush saying something like this:

"Young people today have a better chance of seeing a UFO than they do of seeing a Social Security check"

I'm quoting from memory, so I may not be word-perfect on that. I'll try to get the exact quote for you later.

This is scarcely his first lie about Social Security, but it is a whopper. As things stand, if nothing is done about Social Security, SS check will have to be reduced by something between 20 to 30 percent. That would happen somewhere between 2042 and 2052, depending on what estimate you're looking at. And that's only if we don't do something to fix system. Even inaction sounds way better than Bush's privatization "fix" which does nothing to find funds or reduce benefits. Those are the real choices once the smoke and mirrors are swept away.

Comments

[psongster.livejournal.com]

"Young people today have a better chance of seeing a UFO than they do of seeing a Social Security check"


This meme started years ago. At the time it was "Young people *think* they have..."

Someone compared survey results to questions along the lines of "Do you think you might see a UFO sometime in your lifetime?" and "Do you expect Social Security to still exist when you retire?" The questions were not originally included in the same survey. But this "fact" has been used in political arguments ever since.

So maybe you misheard Bush and he included the "think" equivocation.

Or maybe survey results, however suspect to begin with, have morphed into Truth.

The complete quote

[petardier.livejournal.com]

I wasn't able to locate the NPR segment, but via the magic of Google I found this quote in today's Asheville NC Citizen-Times. It probably refers to the same speech.

"A lot of young people today feel like they've got a better chance of seeing a UFO than a Social Security check." - President Bush

Ok, this isn't quite as bad as my original version, but it's still bad. Young people may indeed be this ignorant (I hope not), but the president shouldn't be. See my point above about what happens if we do nothing. People still get 70-80% of their benefits. This isn't as good as what people get now, but it's a long way from nothing.

Social Security does have a problem. Young people evidently think it won't be there for them. I can remember thinking that perhaps 15-20 years back. Why do people think this? Probably because the "Social Security won't be there" meme has been pushed for a long time by conservatives. The rest of us need to speak up in response to that sorry line.

Re: The complete quote

[psongster.livejournal.com]

I *completely* agree with your analysis (and if you look over my LJ you'll find evidence for that assertion -- I've written on Social Security repeatedly).

It's largely a matter of repetition. I forget how many years ago I first heard the UFO comparison. And it has been repeated and repeated until even people who are politically progressive -- including a few of my closest friends -- genuinely doubt that Social Security will exist in our retirement. Government officials and pundits keep saying that government is unreliable -- and if enough people decide that government is unreliable, then it will be.