We were already to score...
Then Linkletter and Jack Lalanne started moving in on our dates!
Posted on 02/07/2005 6:47:46 PM PST by wagglebee
Despite the Democrats' insistence that there is no present crisis with Social Security, Art Linkletter says that the time to fix it is now.
"If your doctor told you that the colonoscopy you just had revealed a small cancer which is going to kill you in 25 years, I'll bet you'd consider yourself in crisis right now, wouldn't you?" Linkletter asked Fox host Neil Cavuto, while appearing on his top rated show.
The Legendary broadcaster, now head of USANext, a group supporting President Bush's plans to reform the faltering system added, "The AARP [a big critic of the Bush plan] is probably the largest liberal lobby group in Washington with some 33 million people, while my group, USANext is smaller."
Noting that he has watched the Social Security system from its birth in 1935, Linkletter, 93, said, "It was a great idea, but who could have guessed that there be this many changes in the last 40 years. For instance, when I was born in 1912, I could expect to live to be 47 - today's child can expect to live to be 77," thus collecting benefits for 22 years, a term far longer than the system was planned to handle.
Those changes, he explained, are some of the causes of the current crisis.
Responding to Cavuto's remark that many seniors quibble with the idea that SS needs fixing, Linkletter explained, "The president has already assured them that what is theirs would be theirs under any plan. They don't have to go for any adjustments or changes under the plan that the Republicans are putting forward."
Lionkletter added, "We call our group USANext - who are the next? They are our grandchildren - the are the baby boomers that are coming along right now - 76 million. But the ones who are in it now don't have to make a move. They are perfectly safe. And of course 7 out of 10 of the people who are in the 50 to 60 year group and earlier - in a recent poll that we took - were not so sure that there would be a Social Security program.
"There is no Social Security Trust find. There are only IOUs. We have only the guarantee of the government, which is fine except how is the government going to get the money - cut benefits, extend the eligiboility age? And we have to do something to allow people to get more than 2 percent return on the money they are putting in each year. If this were a private company, the government would be arrested."
Agreeing with Cavuto that the SS system was never meant to be a stand-alone retirement program, Linkletter said that in the early days it was seen as "a kind of safety raft. Now we have millions living on SS."
As for Democrat claims that there is no crisis, he said that even President Clinton admitted back in the 1990s that he thought there was a definite crisis in the system, and "we say the same thing."
Tough to argue with this logic!
Art Linkletter is 93, and he's still working?!?! God Bless him!
I didn't know he was still alive.
Yup -still alive. Today he commented on SS position of Bush. GOD LOVE EM.
Linkletter has aged really, really well!
Cavuto closed the segment telling Art that he had been one of the kids on his show. Who'da thunk?
Absolutely - AL is one good dude.
The cancer analogy is the best one I have heard so far. BUT - the hard cold truth (and a better comparison) would be:
Imagine being diagnosed with a very small malignant growth. It will kill you in 25 years if left untreated. If you treat it, you will prolong your life a few more years. If you completely remove the tumor, you will live indefinitely.
Until Social Security is relegated to it's original roll as a buffer/safety net to HELP those who are retired, not a "full income" that so many have developed an addiction to (yet complain about having to eat cat food...).
He may be wise with years, but he still doesn't understand how life expectancy statistics work. The short average life expectancies of earlier times were skewed by many infant deaths. Once people survived to adulthood, when they would become earners, life expectancies were much closer to present day life expectancies. There are good arguments for changing Social Security, but the life expectancy argument isn't one of them.
My grandmother used to watch Art Linkletter's "Houseparty" 40+ years ago.
I thought he was old as dirt then.
Guess what. He hasn't changed a bit and I've gotten old!
Okay I may be dating myself, but the man is high on my list.
We were already to score...
Then Linkletter and Jack Lalanne started moving in on our dates!
Art Linkletter -- how cool. I can remember as a kid watching "People Are Funny." I feel young again!! He was also in a movie once with Ronald Colman -- quite an odd pairing.
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