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The life expectancy is much longer today than it was when Social Security was created.

Social Security has been effective for 70 years; prior predictions of its demise have been totally overstated.

The full retirement age is 67 and the lifespan is 80, so when they first conceived Social Security, they didn't think they were going to be paying benefits for 13-15 years. That's one of the reasons why this pyramid scheme isn't working.

It used to be 65 when you went into retirement. Before that, when you got into your 50s, you were getting older.

The reason to deal with Social Security is that it is a system where we have a tradition and history of making sure it is solidly funded for 75 years. At the moment, we look out and we see it is solidly funded until 2037.

When one gets old and they are sick, there are not many things they can count on but they should be able to count on Social Security. Our seniors' retirement should never rely on the bull of political promises or the bear of the market.

Before Social Security existed, about half of America's senior citizens lived in poverty.

In 1935, the year Social Security was created, the poverty rate for seniors was over 70%.

You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn't devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career... So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised.

In 1890, nearly everyone died on the job, and if they lived long enough not to die on the job, the average age of retirement was 85.