Political Quotes

“our Congressional Budget Office today made an announcement that they now predict that we will have a $8 billion surplus this fiscal year ending October 1. It gives me a great deal of concern that we are hoodwinking the American people on what a surplus really is. If one looks at this chart, it shows what has happened between 1960 and 2000. You notice even in spite of the Washington claims that there will be a surplus, the national debt keeps going up and up and up. That is because the way Washington defines a surplus is all money in, and all money out. The Trust Fund surpluses are spent in Social Security. In fact all our Trust Fund surpluses are spent on other items, and they are used, in effect, to pretend that we have a balanced budget, when we really do not. So while we are professing great accomplishments, that we are having a surplus of $8 billion this year, this is how much we are borrowing from Social Security. The Social Security Trust Fund in 1998, total revenues in, $480 billion; total expenses, $382 billion. We are borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund, the bottom line, $98 billion. So when they say we have a surplus of $8 billion, it says maybe we are only borrowing $90 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund.”