Pete Domenici: “For 10 years, we have had a written proposal with reference to the lockbox for Social Security and never have we put in…”

“For 10 years, we have had a written proposal with reference to the lockbox for Social Security and never have we put in language that said what their Medicare lockbox amendment says, that the surpluses can be used for spending related to the programs currently in HI. As a matter of fact, we have used the money for Social Security with a lockbox, a ``verbal'' like theirs, that never included such language, and we have spent the money on Social Security. What I am saying is this is an invitation to expansion and spending, rather than an invitation to protecting it. We could be making HI less solvent under this language rather than more solvent.”