Political Quotes

“I would rise once again this morning to strongly urge my colleagues to come together to use the budget surpluses to protect both Social Security and Medicare for future generations. Both of these programs are success stories for the American people. Prior to Social Security, over half of our retirees were in poverty in this country. Now, it is less than 10 percent. Medicare is the same success story, providing health care to millions of retirees and disabled across the country. If we cannot dedicate the majority of the surpluses to both of these important investments for our retirees when we have a surplus, if we cannot pay down the debt when we have a surplus, when will we do it? Putting dollars into Social Security and Medicare and paying down the debt is the right thing to do at this time, and I hope we will come together when we can. Now that we have a robust economy, we have the opportunity, with budget surpluses, to pay down the debt through paying back Social Security and Medicare. We need to do that first before we proceed with anything else.”