Max Baucus: “There is a real reason why it is important to protect Social Security. Social Security is probably the most successful…”

“There is a real reason why it is important to protect Social Security. Social Security is probably the most successful social program this Congress, this country, has ever adopted. Look how many people it has helped. If we did not have Social Security today, 44-some percent of American seniors would be living in poverty-- that many. At one time, it was 50 percent. It is close to 50 percent of America's seniors who would be living in poverty today without Social Security. These are mostly people who have worked hard during their lives: the World War II generation, the product of the Great Depression, the Korean war. These are hard-working Americans, the real soul of America, by and large, and they deserve Social Security. About one-third of America's seniors today get almost all their income from Social Security. So why in the world would we even contemplate cutting Social Security? It makes no sense. That is why I offer this amendment, to make it clear we do not cut Social Security. Social Security, also, is not a big problem in our American fiscal situation. Social Security does not go ``belly up'' until about the year 2043. It is not a big problem in our fiscal situation. It is not.”