Cass Ballenger: “one would never know what is actually in the Republican budget proposal by listening to the other side. In fact, I do…”

“one would never know what is actually in the Republican budget proposal by listening to the other side. In fact, I do not even recognize our own budget after listening to what the other side is saying about it. I guess it is Mediscare all over again with a lot of demagoguery on Social Security added on to it. On second thought, make that a lot of demagoguery on Social Security to go with it. One has the impression that our friends on the other side of the aisle have not looked at the Congressional Budget Office report on our budget. Maybe they are getting their information about our budget from their own press releases. Our budget reserves 100 percent of the retirement surplus for Social Security and Medicare. Let me repeat that for the benefit of any demagogues on the other side of the aisle who seem to have some difficulty with that fact. Our budget reserves 100 percent, again 100 percent, of the retirement surplus for Social Security and Medicare. I urge my skeptical colleagues on the other side to call the CBO for themselves to verify this fact.”