Political Quotes

“yesterday, Governor Bush came out with some general parameters on saving Social Security and the importance of saving Social Security. There has been a lot of discussion of whether there should be any privately-owned investment owned by the American worker as opposed to continuing to keep on going with a system that is insolvent. What it boils down to is that because of the demographics, because people are living longer, because the birth rate has been going down, there are fewer workers paying their taxes into a system to support and finance existing senior citizens benefits. It is important that everybody understands that it is a pay-as-you-go program. It is a program where taxes come in one week, and by the end of the week, they are paid out in benefits. If you are an average worker today, then you are going to get an estimated 1.7 percent real return on the money you and your employer put into the system. If you are a young worker, because we are going to run out of enough money eventually, there is not going to be adequate tax money, coming in to pay benefits, then you are going to get even a smaller return. There are two ways to fix Social Security; you either increase the revenue coming in, or you reduce the benefits going out. None of us want to reduce benefits. Everybody, including Governor Bush, has committed that we are not going to reduce benefits for current retirees or near-term retirees.”