Frank Pallone: “I know we only have about 10 or 15 minutes left, but if we could just spend a little time talking about the Social…”

“I know we only have about 10 or 15 minutes left, but if we could just spend a little time talking about the Social Security issue and what the Republicans tried to do a few weeks ago with regard to these tax breaks for the wealthy versus Social Security, because this was very disturbing to me. We passed the Balanced Budget Act last year. For the first time in a long time, this year there was a bit of a surplus in the budget. However, when we look at the budget, we realize very clearly that that surplus is totally the result of money that has been set aside in the Social Security trust fund, because at some time down the road that trust fund money is going to be needed to pay out benefits to senior citizens. We know that at some point, even more money is going to have to be available than what is set aside in the trust fund years down the road. But they had the audacity a few weeks ago to suggest and to actually pass on the House floor a bill that would take money from the surplus for tax breaks, a lot of which, from what I can see, would just help wealthy corporations.”