Political Quotes

“I understand the problem, and we all get it when we go home. In 1972, we changed Social Security and went to a readjustment basis. As a matter of fact, very few people know this. When we went to the cost-of-living adjustment, we did it in the hopes of holding Social Security costs down because we were getting amendments in the Chamber to increase Social Security above the cost of living, and we thought this would be a restraint on the growth. And it became a one-upmanship: 'I offer an amendment to increase it 5 percent.' 'I move to amend that and increase it to 10 percent.' So we went to the cost-of-living adjustment as a restraint on Social Security. But in 1972, we made a mistake in the adjustment, and we actually overcompensated, so that people who retired got more than the cost-of-living adjustment. We realized that mistake in 1977, and those are the 5 notch years, and they basically apply to people who were born between 1917 and 1922. And, of course, the Government hates to take away from anybody anything we have given them.”