Byron Dorgan: “When I saw the chart, I knew one would not want to use a chart like that. The impression would be that there is a one…”

“When I saw the chart, I knew one would not want to use a chart like that. The impression would be that there is a one green line and a lot of red lines. When I saw your dates, I realized they were not accurate. Let me give the accurate numbers. Here will be the annual surpluses, not deficits. In the 1996, your chart had a red line, and that was in error. There will be a $71 billion surplus, then a $74 billion surplus, then $80 billion, $87 billion, $91 billion, and, next year, $97 billion. In the year 2002, there will be a $103 billion surplus--that is, receipts into Social Security over expenditures. This surplus will continue out on into the two-thousand-teens, after which there will be red lines. It would be appropriate to have a chart that shows the red lines, but you would not want to show that unless you showed very substantial surpluses. I wanted to make the point that if somebody saw that chart and started going, ``We have big troubles,'' that is not accurate.”