Nick Lampson: “I rise this afternoon to pass along some comments that my mother, Nancy Lampson, made to me after church just recently.…”

“I rise this afternoon to pass along some comments that my mother, Nancy Lampson, made to me after church just recently. She, like millions of other senior citizens, is worried about the future of Medicare and Social Security. She is afraid that it will not be there for me and my brothers and sisters. My mother knows that saving Social Security and Medicare is not just good for retirement security for her. She knows it is also good for me, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren. Why? Because putting aside 62 percent of the surplus for Social Security and another 15 percent for Medicare will also reduce the national debt and reduce the billions of dollars we waste each year on interest payments. Winnowing down the national debt will be good for my mother's great grandchildren. Currently, the United States of America spends nearly as much on interest payments as it does on national defense. If we wisely invest the surplus in Social Security and Medicare today, we can reduce our interest payments from 14 percent of the budget in 1999 to 2 percent in 2014. Investing in Social Security and Medicare will not only reduce the debt but also will lower interest rates, boost the economic growth, and increase the financial security of working families. You do not have to be a Harvard economist to know that this makes good sense to the American people.”