Lateefah Simon: “let me just add, we have a contract not only with people who are on Social Security today. We have a contract with those…”

“let me just add, we have a contract not only with people who are on Social Security today. We have a contract with those three groups that Senator Feingold mentioned in the future. And how is the Social Security trust fund protected? It is protected by U.S. bonds. If you take a look at the history of nations, when nations get around 9, 10, or 11 percent of deficit versus national income, with the exception when you are in a war, then nations start printing money. What the economists say is they monetize the debt. The latest CBO projection is we are going to end up, in the year 2030, with 18 percent. That suggests that the only way we can protect Social Security is to make sure that debt does not rise, and that we do not monetize the debt, because if the dollar is only worth 25 cents, those bonds are only worth 25 cents on the dollar. Senator Ford is correct. Social Security is not causing the deficit. I have voted for statutory provisions, and I will again as we move ahead. But we also have to recognize that if we separate Social Security and say this is not our direct responsibility, starting in the year 2012 or 2013, Social Security starts to go into a deficit situation. What we ought to be doing, if this passes, is sitting down with senior groups right now and saying how do we plan for this? Do we have to have a half-percent increase in Social Security in the FICA tax to pay for it?”