Political Quotes

“simply put, a couple things: My senior Senator seems to suggest we did something in the 1980s that has made Social Security sound. Social Security has surpluses today, but every day that goes by, those surpluses are not enough to pay the bills that are due and yet to come. Here is what the Social Security Administration told us yesterday: There are 3.3 workers to every retiree in 2002. Twenty years from now, it goes 2 to 1. They told us yesterday that without structural reform--I emphasize again, structural reform does not include leaving Social Security current dollars alone. If you leave every dollar owed to Social Security alone and do nothing else, it still runs out of money in 2042. It is $25 trillion short in 2075. That is not the problem. People who say that are not being forthright about the problem. Having said that, I join my colleague from South Carolina and the Senator from North Dakota to try to make sure we preserve Social Security, keep it strong and healthy until we can find a structural reform. He has made an argument that cutting taxes reduces the family's income. The point is that payroll taxes are the income for Social Security. We are in a depressed economy right now. We are trying--at least I am trying--to take some dollars and invest them back into the families and businesses of America, to create additional jobs, to strengthen the revenue flow, and to protect the revenue flow of Social Security.”