Angie Craig: “Any time you decrease the debt held by the public, you increase the ability of Government to pay their obligations to…”

“Any time you decrease the debt held by the public, you increase the ability of Government to pay their obligations to Social Security. Because those obligations will not be ingrained in new spending--be it discretionary or entitlement spending--we set it aside and we do not obligate it except for, as you would have in this instance, a reduction of debt and a decline, therefore, of interest paid on debt. That specifically is what the language does. I think it is quite clear and it is quite obvious that we are not obligating Social Security trust funds anymore to entitlement spending or to discretionary spending. And, therefore, when the obligations of the trust fund come due, you have money available because you did not obligate it. Therefore, this Senator and I do not have to go to the public to raise taxes to pay for a system for which the public had already been taxed.”