Byron Dorgan: “Senator Kyl, who is the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, and I have visited about sponsoring debates in the…”

“Senator Kyl, who is the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, and I have visited about sponsoring debates in the Senate on a series of very big issues. I am chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee. We thought it would be interesting and useful to create a setting in the Senate that is not connected to a specific piece of legislation on the Senate floor and have a debate back and forth, a structured debate about a big issue. This evening, following the two votes will be the first of such debates. I have asked, on the Democratic side, Senator Durbin and Senator Corzine to be involved in this debate. The debate will be on the subject of Social Security. I believe the Republican side, which will be represented by Senator Sununu and Senator Santorum, will be describing their proposition that we ought to have private accounts in Social Security and the Democratic side will describe, I believe, why having private accounts in the Social Security system is inherently risky and moving in the wrong direction to provide security for this important program.”