Roy Blunt: “I say to the Senator, I think my first thought is, the insight is not that difficult; it is just that we need to do our…”

“I say to the Senator, I think my first thought is, the insight is not that difficult; it is just that we need to do our job. We cannot expect to solve these problems if the Senate does not do the job it is supposed to do. And we cannot expect to solve these problems if we keep letting the size of our government get out of proportion to the capacity of our economy. In 2008--the year before the administration started--the deficit was higher than I thought it should be by a lot. It was $459 billion. That was 3 percent of GDP, and I thought that was unacceptable. The very next year--the first year of this administration--it went to 10 percent of GDP, $1.4 trillion. Then after that, it has been a trillion, a trillion, a trillion--$1.4 trillion, $1.3 trillion, $1.3 trillion--$1.3 trillion in the year we are in now. This does not change that trajectory at all. And in the budget the President submitted, for the first time any President has said this, the President says the Social Security trust fund, during this 10-year window, will run out of money--that the money coming in, for the first time ever, will not equal the money going out--but proposes nothing to do anything about that. This is a commitment the Federal Government has made to Americans. Social Security can continue to work if you periodically look at the facts, the demographics, and adjust it. We have about worn out the Tip O'Neill-Ronald Reagan example on Social Security.…”