Reply #59: Found the transcript, if you've got the stomach for it [View All]

It this is the correct speech, it seems the comments were taken out of context somewhat. Maybe it was one of his other stump speeches. :shrug:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050304-9.html

If you look over here, in the '50s, 16 people were paying into the system to pay for one retiree. So if that person was to get $14,200, say, it would be $900 a payer. The system now is 3.3 people paying into the system. In a decade it's going to be two people paying in the system. Now, this is a pay-as-you-go system. In other words, it says when you retire, somebody is going to have to pay for your benefits. This is not a -- this is not a savings account. One of the myths of Social Security is that your money is going into it and the government is holding it and saving it for you. That's not the way it works. Your money is going into the system and it's getting spent -- some of it on retirement benefits, other parts on just general government. And there's an IOU, a paper IOU accumulating. But it's not just sitting there. There's not an account with your name that's saying, on behalf of you, the government has now got your money. That's not the way it works. So it's a pay-as-you-go. It goes in and goes out.

big snip>

Let me tell you why it makes sense to me that -- first of all, the government can't meet its promises.....


more...