Political Quotes

“I want to talk about Social Security. Mr. Speaker, when I first came here 5 rac{1}{2} years ago, we were not only borrowing a great deal from the Social Security Trust Fund, but we had an additional deficit spending that approached $300 billion. Now, this year, we are not only going to have a zero deficit under the traditional way that we calculated deficit spending, but this year, if we have just a little bit of luck, we are going to have a real balanced budget. That means that we may have balance not considering the $80 billion that government is borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund. This is one of the best years in the history of this country in terms of revenues exceeding expenditures. This year we might exceed $80 billion in terms of the unified budget. That means a real, honest balanced budget without the Social Security surplus. I think it is very important that in the future we start changing the way that we do business. We stop fooling people, we stop borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund, and consider that revenue as a way to mask the deficit. A real balanced budget is when we reach balance, not including that amount borrowed from the trust fund. My bill HR 4033 does that and I invite my colleagues to co-sponsor.”