WALLY HERGER: “Mr. Speaker, this is not a complicated bill. It is very simple. It is basically saying that, for the first time in more…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is not a complicated bill. It is very simple. It is basically saying that, for the first time in more than 40 years, that we are not going to spend the surplus, whatever that surplus is. That is, in Medicare and Social Security, we are not going to spend it. Very simply, whatever it is, we are not going to spend. It brings about a point of order to ensure that we do not. Look how far we have come. It was only a few years ago that we were looking at deficits of $200 billion and $300 billion, and that did not even include the surplus of Social Security or Medicare. Then a few years ago, we were reporting $80 billion, $90 billion, $100 billion surpluses; but that did include, I am afraid, Medicare and Social Security. But guess what, those surpluses were only half true. Every penny of those surplus dollars were really Social Security dollars. So what did we do? We passed a Social Security lock box last year that said that we would not spend any of the surplus of Social Security, and that passed. Now Congress and the President speak of budget surpluses without Social Security being included in it. This amount is estimated to be $40 billion this year. Now we are raising the bar one notch higher. We are saying that we are now going to stop raiding Medicare, just as we stopped raiding Social Security last year.”