On the recordOctober 4, 2000
I was very upset last night with some of the comments on Social Security. The Vice President has got a plan that I think does not solve the huge problem of keeping Social Security solvent. The biggest risk is doing nothing at all. Social Security has a total unfunded liability of over $20 trillion. The Social Security Trust Fund contains nothing but IOUs. That is what the Vice President is suggesting, that we add another giant IOU and somehow come up with the money. How are we going to come up with the money? To keep paying program Social Security benefits, the payroll tax will have to be increased to at least 50 percent of total income; 50 percent of total income for our FICA taxes or benefits will have to be cut by one-third. We cannot continue to go on doing nothing. We have to make some program changes if we are going to keep this important program solvent.
Source
govinfo.gov
