John Thune: “Mr. Speaker, I too want to speak in support of this because, as was noted earlier, this is not a Republican issue, this…”

“Mr. Speaker, I too want to speak in support of this because, as was noted earlier, this is not a Republican issue, this is not a Democrat issue, this is an American issue. This is a problem that we have to deal with. It is one in my State of South Dakota that is particularly important because we have probably as high of an over-65 population as any State in the country. It also includes my mother and father who depend very heavily upon this important program, and it is one in which I think we agree we have to look at how we can save this program and also improve it for the next generation. Frankly, I credit the committee with launching this debate because in fact it does say something about Washington actually dealing with a long-term issue. Rather than waiting until the horse is out of the barn, which is the way that this city oftentimes addresses issues, we are looking down the road at what we can do at this particular point in time to address what is going to be a long-term challenge in this country. In doing that, I think there are a couple of parameters I hope we have as we begin this debate. The first is that no retiree today or someone who is going to retire should have to worry about their Social Security benefits being touched.”