Kendrick Meek: “Whatever we want to call it. I will just say that this bipartisan number here, 163 Democrats for it in 1983, 80…”

“Whatever we want to call it. I will just say that this bipartisan number here, 163 Democrats for it in 1983, 80 Republicans for it in 1983, and Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of this House was sitting in the Speaker rostrum, Mr. Speaker. It took leadership, and that is what we need now. Folks ask, I say to the gentleman, what is the Democratic plan. Well, the Democratic plan is in the wallets of every American, the guarantee when they go through their wallet looking for lunch money for their children or looking for bus fare to catch the bus or, as we know, grabbing, unfortunately, for a credit card now versus cash to put gas in your tank, when they pass that Social Security card, what they know now is the fact that they will receive benefits for the next 47 years. That is the Democratic plan, and the Democratic plan is also making sure in a bipartisan way that we move forward, make sure that we preserve Social Security for future generations, and make sure that we do not hand debt to our future generations. Mr. Speaker, $5 trillion is an awful lot of money. Once again, on the armed services end, 44 percent of our debt is owned by foreign interests. If we want to talk about the future of this country, if we want to talk about security, if we want to talk about homeland security, if we want to talk about financial security, stability for this country and for the Republic, never before in the history of the Republic has the deficit been as high as it is right now.…”