February 17, 2011
Either Senator Warner doesn’t know one of the most basic facts about Social Security or he is deliberately saying things that are not true to advance his agenda of cutting Social Security. In an interview on Morning Edition he commented that Franklin Roosevelt set the retirement age at 65 when the program was initially established and that we have still not raised it, even though we have had substantial increases in life expectancy.
In fact, the age for receiving full benefits has already been raised to 66 and will rise further to age 67 for people born after 1962. It would be incredible if Senator Warner was unaware of this fact. It is also remarkable that the moderator did not correct Mr. Warner’s misstatement and inform listeners that the normal retirement age has in fact been raised. This is not the first time that Morning Edition has been used to pass along a false information to disparage Social Security.
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