On the recordJanuary 25, 2010
I am speaking today in favor of the Conrad-Gregg amendment, of which I am a cosponsor also. While the Senator from California is here, I want to go back 27 years ago to one of the times in which government came together and worked best on a crisis. It was 1983. I had come to Congress a few years before, and we were suddenly at the point at which Social Security was going to run out of money within 6 months. Obviously, something had to be done. The good news was there were two wily old Irishmen who were leading the government. One was in the White House--his name was Reagan--and the other one was the Speaker of the House--and his name was O'Neill. Those two were great examples. They could fight like cats and dogs during the day, but when they walked out the door, they were personal friends. They had a personal relationship. When it came time to cutting a deal to get the performance of the government, they could do it. Realizing that Social Security was about to be in financial cardiac arrest, they said: We are going to do this. They appointed a blue ribbon panel, much like what we are talking about here in this Conrad- Gregg amendment. The difference between then and now is that we had leaders of both parties who were committed to making it work. I am not sure what we are going to see out here on the landscape today, unless the American people rise up and say: A pox on both your Houses. You guys better get together.
