Political Quotes

Tom Coburn: “Let me add one other thing. The Social Security System, as designed, was a good system. We had a lot of people working…”

On the recordMarch 3, 1999
Let me add one other thing. The Social Security System, as designed, was a good system. We had a lot of people working to pay for very few people getting benefits. ... So now we have two problems: We have, one, the population shift with the baby boomers; but we also have the lack of true integrity by the Congress to pay for the things that they pass on as a benefit. So the way to get reelected is to send the pork back home, tell people that we are doing something for them, but their grandchildren and their great grandchildren are going to be hassled, and their standard of living is going to be markedly decreased because we did not have the courage to say, if we are going to do something, we have to pay for it.
Said by
Tom Coburn
Republican · Oklahoma

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the challenges facing the Social Security System and government spending.

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