Max Baucus: “this amendment before the Senate, which I do not favor, saddens me. It is not being straight with the American people.…”

“this amendment before the Senate, which I do not favor, saddens me. It is not being straight with the American people. It is packaged in a way to look as if it is protecting Social Security. It is like a lot of products: They are packaged, with a promise on the label which may or may not describe what is inside the package. The package here is called a lockbox to save Social Security. That is the package. That is the wrapping around the product. It is not indicative of the product inside. What is the product inside? Inside the package, the so-called lockbox package, not one penny is added to Social Security. The Social Security trust fund is due to expire in roughly the year 2034. The passage of this amendment does not extend that by one day. There is no difference, no change. What is the product inside this so-called package? What is inside is essentially a provision which will be in the law which says public debt has to decline by the amount that the Congressional Budget Office projects. If at any date it does not, then the debt ceiling is in effect. That means that Government cannot make its payments and meet its obligations as we bump up against the debt ceiling. The amendment before the Senate, the public debt ceiling limit, declines right along with reductions in public debt as projected by the CBO. Why is that a problem? It is a problem because the debt limit is not the way we force fiscal discipline. It is a charade.”