Political Quotes

“usually I am sort of a calm, old farmer from Michigan, and I take the ups and downs and the comments of what people say pretty casually. This afternoon, though, I was quite upset when I heard Secretary Rubin and Secretary Shalala and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Shirley Chater, in effect say that there was not very much trouble with today's report of the trustees on Medicare and Social Security. The report on Social Security said the fund would technically be broke by the year 2029, and the reaction from that group was that, look, that gives us a lot of time in the future to make the changes we need. Social Security has never been broke. I guess, Mr. Speaker, my problem is why are our heads in the sand? Why are they putting their heads in the sand? Why are Republicans, why are Democrats, not facing up to the issue of saving Social Security? Look. Let me tell you what happened back in 1983 before the Greenspan Commission started. At that time they said the unfunded liability of Social Security would take 1.82 percent of existing payroll to make Social Security solvent. Guess what it is today? Today it is up to 2.17 percent of existing payroll to keep Social Security solvent, and yet Secretary Rubin said, well, you know, we have approximately $500 billion in the trust fund. But there is no money in the trust fund.…”