Political Quotes

“I stand in favor of this motion to instruct conferees to address the solvency of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds before enacting huge and fiscally irresponsible tax cuts that would drain the budget surplus. Virtually all economists, including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, have argued that addressing the fiscal challenges posed by the impending retirement of the baby boom generation should take precedence over tax cuts. Of course, the challenge is not just one facing Social Security but most especially Medicare as well. The Medicare hospital insurance trust fund in fact is projected to become insolvent long before the Social Security trust fund. So a broad consensus has developed that we should address the long-term future of both of these programs, that that really is of the utmost priority on our national agenda. Nonetheless, here we are about a fourth of the way through this first session of the 106th Congress and we have made no discernible progress on these two issues, which arguably are the most important domestic issues that face us. Both the Senate and the House versions of the budget resolution would take us down a road that provides no help on extending the solvency of Medicare and Social Security.”