Bob Dole: “In this letter, we once again extend our invitation to the President, asking him to join us in a bipartisan effort to…”

“In this letter, we once again extend our invitation to the President, asking him to join us in a bipartisan effort to preserve, improve, and protect Medicare. It was precisely this type of bipartisan effort which saved Social Security in 1983, and it is what is needed today. And I know a little about the 1983 Social Security effort, because I was a member of that Commission, along with Democrats and members from the private sector, appointed by the then majority leader Howard Baker in the Senate, appointed by then Speaker O'Neill in the House, and President Reagan. And it worked. A lot of people felt at that time Social Security was in deep trouble, and it was in deep trouble. It was about to go broke. The trustees had warned us it was about to go broke. It warned us years ahead it was about to go broke. As often happens around this place, nobody really thought it was going to happen. When it finally became critical, we moved and we acted, and thanks to the efforts of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Capitol and President Reagan's effort, we were able to put together a compromise which, since 1983, has secured the solvency of the Social Security trust funds. In fact, Social Security is going to be in good shape for a fairly long time. Some day we will have to address it, but right now the 1983 Social Security fix has worked.”