John Cornyn: “I would say to the Senator from Alabama that he reads it the same way I read it. You can't do both. You can't raise the…”

“I would say to the Senator from Alabama that he reads it the same way I read it. You can't do both. You can't raise the money to pay for the bill and say you don't have to pay Social Security benefits. These very same people are going to expect some day that they will get those benefits. What happens, as I understand it--and the distinguished ranking member of the Budget Committee can correct me if I am wrong--when we borrow money, in essence, from the Social Security trust fund, there is an IOU there that is going to have to be paid back. It does appear to me there is double counting here. I would say the $14.2 billion on-budget deficit, that is before you add in the $30 billion of additional cost for 20,000 Border Patrol agents. As I read page 48 of the CBO, they estimate that implementing the underlying bill would result in net discretionary costs of about $22 billion over the 2014-to-2023 period. It sounds to me as if the costs keep mounting and there is double counting going on. I think we have to get to the bottom of it. Given our rush, we need to slow down, understand the numbers, and understand the financial impact, because that is not going to go away if we get it wrong.”