Political Quotes

“If the Senator would yield, I would comment on two elements my colleague just alluded to. Let's talk about Social Security. There are those in our party who have said keep your hands off Social Security. I know what a strong and important program Social Security has been. It has allowed me and my wife to raise our children. My parents were treated with dignity in their latter years. They also had the assurances of Medicare. If we think because Social Security on paper is solvent, we ought to think again because there is $3 trillion owed to the Social Security trust fund by the Federal Government, and, yes, Social Security isn't responsible for that shortfall because we have taken those dollars and put them in the general fund, but that $3 trillion is going to have to come from somewhere. There are some commonsense fixes we can put in place that will protect and serve and strengthen Social Security. On the other hand, we hear in the Chamber tax revenues, I should say more appropriately, are off the table. Every economist and every observer points out we cannot get there from here, there being a balanced Federal budget, without additional revenues. Why can't we start, as the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed, eliminating many of the subsidies and loopholes and special deals in our Tax Code that total something over $1 trillion. That is a great place to start.…”