Maxwell Frost: “Since September 11, Americans have united in historic fashion, pulling together as a national family to face down the…”

“Since September 11, Americans have united in historic fashion, pulling together as a national family to face down the new dangers of terrorism, and Democrats remain committed to ensuring our troops have all the resources they need to win the war on terrorism. There is no partisan debate over defending America. But that is not the only challenge facing us right now, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can only assume that my friends on the other side of the aisle are great fans of Lewis Carroll. You remember Lewis Carroll. He is the fellow who wrote ``Alice in Wonderland.'' We have a situation where down is up and up is down. Republicans say, oh, we do not touch the Social Security surplus. We do not take a penny out of Social Security. Well, down is up and up is down, my colleagues, because, in fact, this budget uses $1 trillion of the Social Security and Medicare surplus the first 5 years and $2 trillion over a 10-year period. Over the past 12 years, America has fallen into a very deep and dangerous budgetary hole, one that poses a great threat to Social Security and other priorities like education, prescription drugs, and homeland security. Since Republicans passed their budget last year, America has lost $5 trillion of the proposed surplus. That is nearly 90 percent of our national nest egg down the drain.”