Kent Conrad: “The problem with Social Security is severe. The Social Security trust fund is currently running surpluses. But we all…”

“The problem with Social Security is severe. The Social Security trust fund is currently running surpluses. But we all know it is then going to turn to cash deficits. Those are going to become very large cash deficits. This is like falling off the cliff. This is the Social Security Administration's outlook for the Social Security trust fund. Why is that? Very simply, the baby boom generation will start to retire. They are alive today. They are eligible for Social Security. When they start drawing Social Security, there will be 77 million, about double the number eligible now. When that occurs, we will have a very serious problem on our hands. The Senator from South Carolina who offers the amendment has correctly described the problem, but he is not dealing with the budget resolution before the Senate. It exacerbates the problem severely. This chart shows the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The green bar is the Social Security trust fund; the red bars are the President's tax cuts, both enacted and proposed. One can see very clearly as the Social Security trust fund is running surpluses, the size of the President's tax cut proposals are growing. At the very time the Social Security trust fund turns cash negative, the cost of the President's tax cuts explode. The result of this is a totally unsustainable plunge into deficits and debt.”