Wayne Allard: “I support this effort to wall off the surplus Social Security revenues. By establishing a lockbox we ensure that all…”

“I support this effort to wall off the surplus Social Security revenues. By establishing a lockbox we ensure that all savings in the program are used to build the trust fund and extend the solvency of Social Security. We learned last year that to leave unobligated money lying around Washington is a bad idea because it gets spent! This is one of several budget reforms that I have been actively supporting. First, the budget process is too complicated and frequently abused. I feel it needs to be simplified. This is a step in that direction. With this provision we can remove the temptation that the Social Security surplus presents to those who tend to spend our money carelessly. As we search for ways to modernize Social Security, it makes sense to dedicate the Social Security surplus to repaying debt owed to the trust fund. Paying down the debt and modernizing Social Security need to happen together. It is important to take this issue up now, especially since we have already considered three requests for supplemental spending for this year, totaling $1.36 billion. These proposals spend the surplus without regard to major budgetary commitments such as Social Security. I have long been a supporter of debt repayment. I believe that Federal debt retirement should be a priority when decisions must be made regarding a Federal budgetary surplus. That is why I sponsored the American Debt Repayment Act, which requires repayment of the federal debt.”