John Spratt: “The gentleman is correct. When the President came to office, we had before us in Congress a novel idea, which would have…”

“The gentleman is correct. When the President came to office, we had before us in Congress a novel idea, which would have been truly a conservative fiscal proposal, namely, that we would take the surplus in Social Security alone and instead of buying up new debt and funding new spending, we would use that surplus to buy old debt, retire that debt. We would add that money, $3 trillion-plus, to net national savings, bringing down the cost of capital, boosting the growth of our economy; and then in 2020, when the Social Security beneficiaries, the baby boomers, begin to press their claims for benefits, Treasury would be more solvent than ever to meet those obligations. That would have been the first long step we could have taken toward Social Security solvency. There was support for it on both sides of the aisle. The President rejected that in preference for his own budget, which has led us to the deficit which appears there now.”