Political Quotes

“When we passed the tax bill in May, we all agreed that Social Security and Medicare funds would be held inviolate. In fact, that was the terms of the consideration of the tax bill as put forward by the President. He said, to make sure the retirement savings of American seniors are not diverted to any other program, my budget protects all $2.6 million. This was elaborated on by members of the majority as they advanced the budget, including the tax plan. In fact, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) said we must understand that it is inviolate to intrude against either Social Security or Medicare, and if that means foregoing or, as it were, paying for the tax cuts, then we will do that. Now we know, however, that the actual budget plan this year involves all future phase-ins of this tax cut coming out of Social Security funds. If we look at the green line on this chart, we will note that for each of the next 10 years, we are into Social Security funds to fund any future dimension of this tax cut. So it is a very different picture than we had when we passed the bill in May. It is not funded from general funds. This is a raid on Social Security.”