John B. Breaux: “I thank Senator Gregg for his unwavering leadership on this issue. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the past…”

“I thank Senator Gregg for his unwavering leadership on this issue. It has been a pleasure to work with him over the past year. I also want to thank Chairman Roth for his leadership. Times have certainly changed since the days when no one would even talk about Social Security reform. Today, we have key members of the Senate presenting innovative ideas about how to address the looming liabilities of the Social Security program. I applaud Chairman Roth's efforts because he is moving this debate forward. This is critical because the motto must be ``sooner rather than later''. There is no better time to tackle entitlement reform than during good economic times. While SS's financing is projected to pay full benefits until 2029--the strain on the Federal budget will begin much earlier, only 10 years from now. The Social Security Advisory Council could not agree on an approach to reform Social Security; however, they all agreed that early action should be taken. This call has been echoed time and time again by the General Accounting Office, Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, as well as most other experts. The budget resolution already contains Sense of the Senate language regarding the budget surplus and Social Security reform. It reads as follows: ``Congress should use unified budget surpluses to reform Social Security for future generations . . .'' I support Chairman Roth's Sense of the Senate because it takes this language a step further.”