Bob Kerrey: “I cannot say that I look forward to tapping on Senator Simpson's box in 2030. But I am enthusiastic about cosponsoring…”

“I cannot say that I look forward to tapping on Senator Simpson's box in 2030. But I am enthusiastic about cosponsoring this resolution with him. One of the most difficult things to learn in life is that you are wrong. An awful lot of us--and I certainly arrived here in 1989 thinking the problem of eliminating the deficit--which was, I believe, $270 billion, or something--was going to be a relatively easy transaction, that we just needed to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, cut congressional pay, and all the odds and ends that you hear a lot, that it was going to be a relatively easy transaction. Then I started to listen to two Senators who, every year, came down with an amendment to the budget resolution--Senator Nunn of Georgia and Senator Domenici of New Mexico. They came down making this argument for reform of our entitlement programs. I must say I voted against them the first time it came up. I think they had 12 or 13 people who voted for it, and it kept getting larger. Eventually, by presenting the facts they persuaded me that looking for an easy solution, as I said, like waste, fraud, and abuse, and other odds and ends, was not looking in the right place.”