Frank Pallone: “I wanted to talk tonight for 5 minutes about the President's latest proposal on Social Security, which I refer to as…”

“I wanted to talk tonight for 5 minutes about the President's latest proposal on Social Security, which I refer to as means testing. I have to say that from the very beginning, when I heard the President's privatization plan and the other statements he has been making about Social Security, I have very much opposed to what he has put forth, but this latest effort at means testing I think is, in many ways, the worst of all, the worst of his proposals. I just want to review some of the concerns that I have about his privatization plan, about his means testing in a few minutes here tonight. First of all, from the very beginning, I think, the President gave essentially misinformation because he kept talking about how Social Security was essentially going insolvent and yet we know that it is very solid, if you will, for the next 30 or 40 years. In fact, we have heard different figures from maybe 2030 or 2035, may be the date when we would begin to see less money available for Social Security. But until that time, the Social Security trust fund is very solvent and benefits would continue to be paid on a guaranteed basis the way they have for the last 60 or 70 years. So from the very beginning, he talked about Social Security in an inaccurate way because he talked about insolvency that does not exist for at least another generation or two.…”