Max Baucus: “I am not going to spend a lot of time on this because this is just ``kabuki'' tonight. Everyone knows this is not a…”

“I am not going to spend a lot of time on this because this is just ``kabuki'' tonight. Everyone knows this is not a serious effort. Everyone knows that this is an attempt, frankly, to make a statement to the press and the people back home. It is very disingenuous, in this Senator's view, because it is not serious, and it is playing with the lives of a lot of senior citizens who wonder what is going on. This consent asks the Finance Committee to be discharged of the legislation. I do not understand that at all. If this is such an important issue, why doesn't the Finance Committee deal with that? I think the answer to that is because there are not the votes in the Finance Committee. The majority of Republicans would not support this in the Finance Committee. They know privatization of Social Security is one of the worst ideas that has come out of this body by any group of Senators in a long time. Why? The DeMint bill increases the Federal debt held by the public by $1 trillion in current dollars in the first 10 years. It increases the Federal debt by $1.7 trillion the first 20 years. By 2080, the debt will be higher under current law by more than $800 billion. So it is a massive increase in the Federal debt. Secondly, it will cause a huge increase in the annual budget deficits for the same reasons. Third, what does it do? It means a reduction in benefits that would otherwise go to Social Security recipients. Why is that?…”