Political Quotes

“last week the actuaries of the Social Security Administration and the Medicare came up with their estimates of the predicament that we are facing in those two programs in terms of having less revenue, less money coming in than is needed to pay for promised benefits. The news was not good. I wanted to start with this pie chart to give everyone an impression of how we spend Federal Government money; and as you see by the title of the chart, Social Security is the largest budget expenditure. This is the Social Security piece of pie, if you will, at 21 percent of all of the money spent by the Federal Government. That compares to 20 percent for defense, and defense, 2 years, 1, 2, 3 years ago was a little over 18 percent. So, even though, defense has grown, Social Security is growing even faster. We have Medicare at 12 percent, but that is the fastest growing program; and within 30 years, Medicare will overtake Social Security as the top Federal budget spending program. Other entitlements, 10 percent; domestic discretionary, 16 percent; and here is a problem area over here, interest on the debt, 14 percent. The reason that is a problem is because we are amassing a dramatic increase in debt.”