Political Quotes

“The chairman says it is $4.5 trillion; $4.5 trillion in IOU's. Insurance companies do the same thing except they do not invest solely in Government bonds. They have a lot of Government bonds, and they may invest in some real estate. They try to spread their portfolio in such a way that they cannot get hurt too much because they know they have benefits to pay out, whereas we prohibit the Social Security Administration from investing in anything but Government bonds. On occasion, the suggestion has been raised that we should let Social Security cut loose and invest in things other than Government bonds where they might get a better return, because Government bonds are a very secure investment and, therefore, the percentage of return on them is lower than a riskier investment. I hate to think, however, what the situation would have been in about 1977 or 1978 had we said to the Social Security Administration, 'Go ahead and invest in what you want,' and they had invested in Texas real estate. We would have been bailing out Social Security from about 1981 on perpetually, and there would have been a tendency to say, 'Why, if we can get a 10- or 12-percent return instead of the Government bond 8 percent return, let us invest in real estate.' So we prohibit them from investing in anything but Government bonds. When we take in this extra $70 billion, we give the Social Security Administration a bond, an IOU. We take the $70 billion and we spend it.”