Jane Harman: “Mr. Speaker, the votes before us are a test of whether this Congress will force future generations to shoulder trillions…”

“Mr. Speaker, the votes before us are a test of whether this Congress will force future generations to shoulder trillions of dollars of new debt incurred by current policy choices. It is a test of whether our grandchildren will have to respond to problems and issues this Congress and administration would rather postpone than try to solve. Amongst them, the solvency of Social Security. There are, of course, alternatives. One is requiring this Congress and the President to fashion a wartime budget, a wartime budget based on a thorough assessment of our Nation's vulnerabilities and the strategy for addressing them; a wartime budget that ensures that our Armed Forces have all the resources needed to fight the long war against terrorism; a wartime budget that prioritizes every other government program, every other decision about spending and taxing. Rather than incur trillions of dollars of new debt, we need a wartime budget that sets out the tough, but right, choices. Rather than use the Social Security surplus to fund our current government spending, we need a wartime budget that guarantees the promises we have made to Social Security recipients.”