Political Quotes

“I want to just make a couple comments on Social Security. Mr. Speaker, I see a lot of young people joining us today. They are the generation at risk on Social Security. The actuaries of the Social Security Administration report that, if we do nothing with Social Security, we are either going to see taxes increase by 54 percent or benefits cut by 33 percent. The chart I have here is a pie chart of the Federal Government spending this year. The bottom green piece of that pie represents Social Security benefits and equals 20 percent of total Federal spending. The cost of senior programs continues to grow. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that people are living longer and therefore are drawing on Social Security longer. At the same time our birth rate is going down. The result is fewer workers paying payroll tax to finance higher benefit costs. That leads us to a predicament where we are going in the red on Social Security. This year, with the Presidential race, it is an appropriate time to discuss Social Security, to get into the details of how we are really going to solve this problem and how we are really going to save this very important program.”