John Shaw: “I say to the gentleman, I think it is also important to note that we have walled off Social Security with the lockbox.…”

“I say to the gentleman, I think it is also important to note that we have walled off Social Security with the lockbox. That money is out there and held sacred. It goes to pay down the debt if it is not being used to reform Social Security or Medicare. It is money that has been paid in by workers for their retirement years. We quit spending it. The direct answer to the question of why was it not done before: in the old days, the Congress spent that money. They spent it as if it were unencumbered tax dollars. They spent it on all kind of problems. In fact, they spent even more than that, and that is what ran up the national debt. That is why we owe so much money. But things are changed around here. We are living within our means. We are paying done the national debt. We are reforming Social Security. We are not taking Americans' pensions away. We are allowing the older American workers to keep what they have earned. Social security is an earned right of the American people. It is that simple. That is black letter law. And it is not for any Congress to take away any of that or compromise any of those benefits. It is a contract, a sacred contract, between the Government and the people of this country, the American workers. And this is what has to be preserved.”