David Price: “We need to be systematically and in a disciplined way paying down that debt, and in these fortunate years where the…”

“We need to be systematically and in a disciplined way paying down that debt, and in these fortunate years where the Social Security trust fund is running a surplus, that is exactly the way that surplus should be applied; not for tax cuts, not for new spending, but for debt reduction and for the strengthening of the future of Social Security. That is the path we were on, that is the path we have been now knocked off of. We all know that we have to do some extraordinary things at this time of national crisis, and you will find no disagreement here today about that, about the need to prosecute this anti-terrorism offensive, about the need to shore up our homeland defenses. But the entire fiscal solvency of the country cannot be wrapped up in the anti-terrorism offensive. We need to do this and to do it well and to do it right, but we need not to do it at the expense of our country's long-term fiscal strength and fiscal solvency. And that is the debate I am afraid our Republican friends have failed today.”