inputs: hypothesis: Social Security benefits might be reduced. premise: Rother points out that Social Security benefits, which currently equal 42 percent of the earnings of an average worker retiring at age 65, would be reduced to 20% of pre-retirement earnings for future retirees, thus potentially freezing retirees into today's standard of living. However, Rother says that price indexing has to be linked to Bush's private investment accounts as income from the accounts give retirees the chance to make up the shortfalls.