Political Quotes

“first, let me correct the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) in that we do not have a balanced budget. We do not have a balanced budget today unless they count the surplus for Social Security generated income, and none of us want to do that. They talk about $3 trillion over the next 10 years. We do not have that. If they look at what is the on-budget surplus that we all acknowledge is money that could be used, we have a projected $1 trillion surplus over the next 10 years; and we have not seen dime one of it yet. Yet, the Republicans want to spend the surplus before we get the surplus. That is not responsible. We are talking about what should the priorities be, and the Democratic motion makes it clear that our priorities should first meet our current responsibilities under Social Security and Medicare, not an expanded role, but they meet our current responsibilities. We think that should be our first priority. Why do we say that? If they look at the Republican bill to pass this House, it not only spends the trillion dollars during the first 10 years, but then it explodes after that, because it is backloaded. It shoots up to $4 trillion over the next 10 years. Just as the baby boomers are reaching the age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare, we are not going to be able to meet our obligations for Social Security and Medicare. That is why we say they cannot do both. We cannot do both. Our priority is to protect Social Security and Medicare.”