Political Quotes

“Let me say a more accurate explanation of how this happened. The Congressional Budget Office scored this as a surplus, indeed, over 10 years. And, as Senator McCain said, the benefits only come out after 5 years and these are people paying in, so the real benefits and payments take place in outer years. The question is, Is the plan sufficient to be actuarially sound for the distant future when the payouts occur? So what happened was, Mr. Orszag had been CBO Director. He said it was not a gimmick and not a Ponzi scheme. In one sense, he was telling the truth. He was using a window score from the Congressional Budget Office over the first 10 years, when it didn't pay out any benefits and had a surplus, to claim that this was going to make the bill itself financially sound. In a sense, to me, it is these kinds of gimmicks that might keep somebody from being prosecuted and sent to jail if they were a private person. This ought to end in the Congress. I think the American people are crying out for honesty in budgeting. They want us to be responsible. They want us to tell them the good news but to also tell them the bad news financially that we face. They know we can't do things we would like to do if we don't have the money. They know we don't have the money to keep taking on new obligations. So I feel as though this is not healthy. When Secretary Sebelius came along and had to certify that they had a 75-year actuarially sound program, there was no way she could do it.…”