Political Quotes

“I wanted to address what I think is one of the important issues in this election, and I would hope everybody all over the country would ask the candidates that are running for the United States Senate, or for the U.S. House of Representatives, or for the President, do they have a plan that will keep Social Security solvent. Social Security, which is probably one of our most important, most successful programs in the United States, now pays over 90 percent of the retirement benefits to almost one-third of our retirees. Social Security is important. The longer we put off developing a solution for Social Security, the more drastic that solution. I first came to Congress in 1993. I introduced my first Social Security bill that year; and then in 1995, 1997 and 1999, I introduced a Social Security solvency bill that was actually scored by the Social Security Administration, scored to keep Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. It is interesting that in the earlier years there were less changes, and we needed less money from the general fund to accommodate the continuation of Social Security. In other words, putting off that bill, missing our opportunity for the last 8 years has meant that the changes are going to be more dramatic. Somehow we have got to do it without reducing benefits for existing or near-term retirees and somehow we have got to do it with yet again increasing taxes on working Americans.”