On the recordMay 18, 2000
It is pretty simple. It is demographics. In 1935, when our Social Security System was put into place, we had 42 workers for every retired person over 65. Today, as the gentleman highlighted earlier, we have three workers for every retired person. Now, as a compliment to the health care system of this country, when Social Security was first put into place, a man could expect to live to be 61 years old, a woman could expect to be 65. But because of health care and taking better care of ourselves and so on and so forth, that has gone up tremendously. So now people are living longer. The result of this has been that throughout this period of time we have had people who have refused to make those kind of adjustments. We had elected officials who continued to defend the status quo and shove it on to the next administration. Well, I think it is time we take a stand and say we are not going to stand for the status quo.
Source
govinfo.gov
