Lateefah Simon: “Yes. And I will spell that out. But let me just say the Senator mentioned seniors are in the cross hairs on Social…”

“Yes. And I will spell that out. But let me just say the Senator mentioned seniors are in the cross hairs on Social Security. Bob Myers, the chief actuary for the Social Security system for 21 years, said it is absolutely essential for the Social Security trust fund to pass this. Without this, we are headed toward monetizing the debt. And as you look at the history of nations, I think that is very, very clear. Then, finally, the Senator mentioned about responding on recessions. I would say there are two arguments here. One is used by Fred Bergsten, you probably remember, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who says we are really strapped; we cannot respond to recessions as we should now. What we ought to do is have a 1- or 2-percent surplus and then give the President the authority to initiate programs immediately in areas where you have unemployment above X percent. I think that is a very valid argument. But the National Bureau of Economic Research at Cambridge has issued a study by two University of California economists who come to this conclusion. Discretionary fiscal policy does not appear to have had an important role in generating recoveries. Fiscal responses to economic downturns have generally not occurred until real activity was approximately at its trough.”