Kent Conrad: “I don't know how to say this in a way that will catch the attention of my colleagues and catch the attention of the…”

“I don't know how to say this in a way that will catch the attention of my colleagues and catch the attention of the American people: We are headed for a train wreck of enormous proportion. We are headed for a circumstance in which the head of the Congressional Budget Office said we are headed for either unsustainable debt and an unprecedented tax increase to 30 percent of gross domestic product-- that would be a 50-percent tax increase from where we are now--or the elimination of the rest of Government as we know it. That is not a Democrat speaking. That is the head of the Congressional Budget Office, who is nominated and put in place by our Republican colleagues. He is telling the truth. The Comptroller General of the United States has given us the same warning. We are headed for a cliff, as a Nation, as a country. Let me show you what that cliff is. This chart shows that the Social Security trust funds face a cash deficit as the baby boomers retire.”