Byron Dorgan: “Mr. President, $40 trillion --I do not know how big the school of the Senator from Idaho was. I assume he did not study…”

“Mr. President, $40 trillion --I do not know how big the school of the Senator from Idaho was. I assume he did not study a trillion, nor did I. There ought to be rules when one starts talking about trillions of dollars. If you extend it for two centuries, you can probably come up with hundreds and hundreds of trillions of dollars, but it is largely irrelevant. The issue is this: We have a Social Security program and a Medicare program. Both of them have some funding challenges in the outyears--not next year, not in the next 10 years. For Social Security, it is well beyond the next three decades, but there are challenges. Why do we have these challenges? This is good news. Let's not grit our teeth and wring our hands and wipe our brow over good news. People are living longer and better lives. Good for them and good for us. This is good news. This is born of success. If you want to solve the Social Security problem and Medicare problem, go back to the old mortality rates. At the turn of the last century in 1900, if you lived in this country, you were expected to live on average to age 48. Now people are going to live 30 years longer on average. That is good news. Good for us. That causes some difficulties in Social Security and Medicare. This is not a big problem. We can solve this problem. Let me describe something the Senator from Idaho needs to know. The Senator from Idaho never did address the question of the $1 trillion hole.”