Nick Smith said "That particular year. So we have now amassed approximately $500 billion that we have borrowed from Social Security and no way to pay it back. But let us not take our eye off of the ball that we are talking about. It seems to me that that ball, in terms of the Federal budget, is cutting spending. We have the ability in Congress to cut discretionary spending. But when you realize that discretionary spending only involves about one-third of the budget and we have got about 20 percent that goes to the interest on the money that we are borrowing and then almost half of the budget is entitlement spending, so I think your example of an illusion that somehow magically the budget is going to be balanced in these out years is exactly that, because will we stick to our guns and balance the budget?" @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordJune 4, 1996

That particular year. So we have now amassed approximately $500 billion that we have borrowed from Social Security and no way to pay it back. But let us not take our eye off of the ball that we are talking about. It seems to me that that ball, in terms of the Federal budget, is cutting spending. We have the ability in Congress to cut discretionary spending. But when you realize that discretionary spending only involves about one-third of the budget and we have got about 20 percent that goes to the interest on the money that we are borrowing and then almost half of the budget is entitlement spending, so I think your example of an illusion that somehow magically the budget is going to be balanced in these out years is exactly that, because will we stick to our guns and balance the budget?

Said by

Nick Smith

Republican · Michigan

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing federal budget issues and the challenges of balancing it.

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