Bob Kerrey: “I intend to vote for this piece of legislation. I think it is good and needed legislation. But I don't think anybody…”

“I intend to vote for this piece of legislation. I think it is good and needed legislation. But I don't think anybody should be deluded as to why we are taking it up. I remember the Boskin Commission. A number of years ago there was a question as to whether or not the CPI was overstating the actual cost of living for seniors who were eligible either for an old age, a survivor, or a disability payment. There was a question as to whether or not it was overstated. So we impaneled this commission to evaluate whether or not it was overstated. They came back and said, yes, it was overstated by a point, 1.1. Out of 535 Members of Congress, maybe 20 people declared they were willing to vote for a 1.1-percentage reduction. If Boskin had come back and said it was understated by a point, there would have been 535 votes for it just like that. Nobody would have minded messing with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nobody would have cited philosophy, et cetera. We are a Congress that has been talking about Social Security reform, saving Social Security first. The President had a year's worth of discussions. We have been talking about this for several years now. It is not rocket science. Social Security is not a difficult problem to figure out. It is not like health care. Medicare is very complicated. Teenage violence is very complicated, as is the disintegration of the family. There are a lot of issues which are so complicated that it is hard to come up with an answer.”