Frank Lautenberg: “I note with interest that all Members on the floor now are members of the Budget Committee, which I think is…”

“I note with interest that all Members on the floor now are members of the Budget Committee, which I think is particularly significant, because we are here talking about not only Social Security and our obligation to make the system solvent--to create a degree of confidence that, looking out into the future, we are going to be able to say to people, some who have already worked a dozen years: Worry not, we are here going to solve the problem of the question of solvency on the Social Security fund and it will be there for you --but we are also, at the same point, talking about the work done to get ourselves to a balanced budget point and, beyond that, to develop the surplus stream that we now see flowing very mightily. The fact is, I think the Senator from South Carolina has worked so hard for so many years on the independence and on the solvency of the Social Security trust fund that he is almost 'Mr. Social Security.' No questions are raised about Social Security when the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, Senator Hollings, isn't there defending the system and defending the right of those who expect to have the benefits to have them there at the time they need them. We shouldn't start spending those projected surpluses that look like they are going to be in abundance until we confront our biggest long-term challenge, and that is to make sure that we have done the things necessary to solve the questions about the Social Security trust fund.”