John Spratt: “the gentleman has been here for some time, and he knows that during the late 1990s and in the early years of this…”

“the gentleman has been here for some time, and he knows that during the late 1990s and in the early years of this century, we all took solemn vows out here, different forms. We had something called the ``lockbox,'' corny title, serious subject, because essentially what he said was that now that we finally have a surplus for the first time in 30 years, we are going to foreswear forever borrowing from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds again. Those trust funds have been building up balances in anticipation of the retirement of the baby boomers ever since 1983. And ever since 1983 until about the year 2000 when we finally hit surplus, we have borrowed to make ends meet from the Social Security trust fund. We have given the trust fund a bond back, but in effect the government has borrowed from these trust funds. Both Houses, both parties, everybody subscribed to the notion that we should quit that practice. Guess what? The Bush administration's budget every year that we have a projection from OMB or CBO, regardless of who it may be, everybody projects that every year fully the budget will consume the Social Security trust fund surplus and the Medicare trust fund surplus. And they are not small numbers; $160 billion for Social Security, 20 to $30 billion per year for Medicare.…”