Dan Coats: “As a moral matter, Americans deserve candor. Americans deserve to hear the truth about the financial situation in which…”

“As a moral matter, Americans deserve candor. Americans deserve to hear the truth about the financial situation in which we find ourselves. We are debating in the Senate this week the budget for the next fiscal year and a budget which lays out a plan to achieve a balance in the future. We are debating about these very issues, the issues of how we spend taxpayer dollars, and how we establish priorities. And there is no better time to talk about it than this particular week in the Senate. Samuelson said, "As a moral matter, Americans deserve candor. As we debate this issue, they deserve what we believe to be the truth. They deserve candor about the situation in which we find ourselves. When you look at the mandatory spending in just the Social Security and Medicare areas, it is an unassailable fact that longer lives, steep health costs, and an aging baby boom will inevitably make Social Security and Medicare unbearably expensive in the next century." The next century sounds like a long way away. We have plenty of time to worry about it. This is 1996 approaching 1997.”