JOHN LINDER: “Reclaiming my time, on that point, people have said to me over the years, well, will people quit consuming? The studies…”

“Reclaiming my time, on that point, people have said to me over the years, well, will people quit consuming? The studies that we have shown from 1945 to 1995 is that the consumption economy is a very steady predictor of economic activity. People will spend so much. The biggest downturn it has had since 1945 was 3 percent in the 1970s and early 1980s. The income economy is very volatile. We are seeing collections right now down 20 percent because of layoffs and no corporate profits; and yet if we were on the consumption economy, the revenues would have increased in 13 of the last 14 quarters because the economy grows. This is a predictable thing to build retirement programs on. We know it is going to grow. We know if we fund the programs off the overall size of the economy, as opposed to the number of people working in it, we will be able to fund those programs. The gentleman is right, and you study it in your committee on a regular basis. This system is destined for collapse.”