Political Quotes

“since I came to Congress in 1993, I have been very concerned about the future of Social Security. Because when I was chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee in the State of Michigan, it was brought to my attention that Social Security was running out of money. It seemed like an easy challenge to convince, if you will, America and Congress that something needs to be done if we are to save this important program that has been so helpful to so many senior citizens. We talk about $87 billion that the President has now requested for additional help in fighting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and for homeland security, but retirement security is just as important. And the retirement security in this country is in great risk, and if we keep putting off a solution to the problem of Social Security, then the solutions are going to be more drastic as we wait years and years. And that is what I have found out over the last 9 years as I have introduced additional business. Let me give some figures, dollar figure, Mr. Speaker, on how short of keeping our promises on Social Security we are. The actuaries estimate that it is going to estimate that it is going to take $120 trillion, $120 trillion over and above what we are taking in in the Social Security tax to keep our promises of benefits for Social Security over the next 75 years. And why are we unwilling to deal with this?”