I guess they call it fact-checking …
“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.”
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.”
One of the small lies of the evening, <$NoAd$>to be sure. But then, isn’t it the small lies that somehow matter most. Pardon our Hallmark moment …
