Wendy Sherman: “If we are in a position where perhaps we will have an extra trillion dollars in general funds, not to mention the…”

“If we are in a position where perhaps we will have an extra trillion dollars in general funds, not to mention the necessary buildup in Social Security, as the gentleman pointed out, this $2.9 trillion surplus, $1.9 trillion of the surplus, is just building up funds that we are going to need when people the gentleman's age and my age are going to retire, so that only $1 trillion of the estimated surplus is in the general fund, the one funded by regular taxes for regular expenditures. If we are in a situation where we do not know whether that surplus is going to come in as projected, then we have two choices: we can adopt a plan where we say we hope it will come in and if it does, we will pay down the debt; or we can say, we hope it will come in, but we are going to spend it before it comes in. But the method that is most likely to lead to higher unemployment, the method that is most likely to lead to a decline in the growth of our gross domestic product is to adopt a fiscally irresponsible plan and then watch the markets respond, watch interest rates creep up, watch investment decline, watch unemployment go up. So to act as if the surplus is certain is the best way to put it at risk. And that is another reason why the Republican plan is so fiscally irresponsible.”