Byron Dorgan: “let me use the remaining time. I guess now we have heard the three stages of denial. Let me rephrase the three stages of…”

“let me use the remaining time. I guess now we have heard the three stages of denial. Let me rephrase the three stages of denial. One, there are no Social Security trust funds; Two, if there are Social Security trust funds, we are not using them to balance the budget; Or, three, if there are Social Security trust funds and we are using them to balance the budget, we will stop by the year 2006. All three positions have been given us in response to our position on this floor--the three stages of denial. I watched the debate on the floor of the House of Representatives the other night. A fellow had a chart, and he talked about the income tax burden by various groups of taxpayers. He said, you look at the folks at the bottom level here. They are not paying higher income taxes. We have not increased their income tax burden. He strutted around and talked about how wonderful that was. He did not say with his chart what had happened to those folks in the last decade with respect to payroll taxes. No, their income tax has not increased. Their payroll tax skyrocketed because this Congress increased the payroll tax, determined to want to save the payroll taxes in the trust fund and build that trust fund for the future. That is why people are paying higher payroll taxes. In fact, this year, $71 billion more is collected in receipts in the Social Security system than will be paid out. The question is, What is that for? If there is no trust fund, what is that for?”