Political Quotes

“First of all, I agree with everything my colleague from North Dakota says in terms of Social Security. I think it was a mistake when we got a unified budget. We talk about this being the 25th anniversary of balanced budgets. In fact, in 1969, you had a balanced budget because for the first time you included Social Security, and without that, there would not have been a surplus. I have been critical, as my colleague may recall, of our budget for two reasons: First, is we include the Social Security surplus. I favor putting that as a separate item in the budget. I will join my two colleagues from North Dakota in statutorily trying to do that. It does complicate getting to a balanced budget very, very much. No question about it. I recognize that and I recognize we have to have a two-thirds vote. And this is a practical compromise. The second point that I have fought on is when we list interest we should list gross interest instead of net interest. It is one of the little games we play around here. We would never think of saying to the Justice Department, ``Well, you collected so many dollars in fines, therefore, your appropriation is that much less.'' It is one of the games that we play. But I am eager to join my two colleagues from North Dakota in statutorily doing everything we can to protect Social Security.”