Dumb Interviews Dumber

Normally, I would have nothing to do with Fox News, but this clip was featured to show Sarah Palin telling Bill O'Reilly to stop interrupting her when she's babbling. Okay, she didn't say "babbling," because she doesn't think that's what she's doing.

The poster sort of passed over O'Reilly's stupidity, maybe being so used to it that she just didn't pay any attention. Clearly, though O'Reilly knows no more about the Social Security program than Sarah Palin does, and possibly quite a bit less.

He asks her, "Cutoff is 55. Okay, instead of 52 it goes to 55, so you can't draw on it until you're 55." Current early retirement age is 62, not 52, and the "cutoff" she was referring to was the age for which people would have their benefits protected. Change proponents promise that if you are age 55 in 2011, then the changes to Social Security will not affect you.

He continues his question, "Some people want mandatory retirement age, where you would have to take it, raised up to about 67. You want to raise that mandatory age up to 67?" There is no mandatory retirement age, and you never "have to take" your Social Security benefits. As to the upper age limit, there is an age at which "full benefits" may be received, and for those born in 1960 or later, currently aged 51, that age already is 67.

Given her answer we can say that "A stupid question got a stupid answer."