Angie Craig: “I wanted to add for the Record some of the analysis we are now doing about what the President said last night and, more…”

“I wanted to add for the Record some of the analysis we are now doing about what the President said last night and, more importantly, how he proposes to spend the taxpayers' money. The surplus that he projects, and that I think we generally agree with, based on the vibrancy of our economy today, is about $4.35 trillion over the next 15 years. That is rough, give or take 1 percent, depending on who is doing the calculation. In that context, here is what the President proposes to do: He proposes to spend 62 percent of it for Social Security, about $2.7 trillion. Probably we would not want to disagree with that, because about 60 percent of the surplus is generated by Social Security taxes, and it ought to go into Social Security and it ought to go into strengthening it and saving it and, hopefully, reforming it. What I am worried about are the young people who are entering the workforce today and beginning to invest in Social Security and finding that the worst investment they have ever made. That is wrong, and we know how to correct it.”