Political Quotes

“I thank you and my colleagues very much. This is an important debate, and I appreciate being able to participate in it. The President's privatized accounts, we know, will do three things, and that is why my colleagues and I are opposed to the privatized accounts. First of all, they will greatly increase the national debt. In fact, do you know what folks are going to own with this? Seventeen thousand dollars more in debt for every man, woman, and child in the United States. That is what they are going to own. It is a lot more debt and a lot higher interest rates as a result of this plan. This is a bad idea. The other thing that doesn't make any sense to me is that right now Social Security, which is retirement--and we do have a secured obligation to make sure that we pay it, but it is retirement, disability, and it is a life insurance policy. For that we pay about a half a percent in administration. On average we are told that it could be upwards of 20 percent, maybe 10, maybe 25, but we are told by the experts, 20 percent in order to administer an annuity or other kind of private account. One of the things I find interesting is that among folks who are really pushing for this idea around here are those folks who would be paid to administer these accounts. I understand we now have something like five financial services lobbyists for every one Senator now here on Capitol Hill. Certainly there are folks who will make a lot of money from this, but it is wrong.…”