Jeff Flake: “It has been an interesting experience to be here and listen to the debate tonight on Social Security. I found it…”

“It has been an interesting experience to be here and listen to the debate tonight on Social Security. I found it interesting in particular to listen to the gentleman from New Jersey read accounts from town hall meetings where Republicans have been attempting to explain the problems that we are facing with Social Security and how many groups, moveon.org, AARP, and others have come to disrupt those meetings. I do not know if liberals or the Democrats are proud of that, that their supporters are going in to heckle and boo. It seems they are. What does that contribute to the debate? Not much in my opinion. There is a saying that you are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. If we look at the facts on Social Security, there are the following: when Social Security started in the 1930s, there were some 42 workers per retiree. In the 1950s, that went to 16 workers per retiree. Today we are down to three workers per retiree. By the time I retire, there will be probably two workers per retiree. You cannot argue with the demographics, and that is where we are headed. Those are the facts. With those facts you have to understand we have got to do something different. This pay-as-you-go system simply is not a model that is going to work with demographics like that.”