Sylvester Turner: “with today's vote on the Federal budget we have a clear choice. We can go back to deficit spending, raiding Social…”

“with today's vote on the Federal budget we have a clear choice. We can go back to deficit spending, raiding Social Security and increasing this Nation's debt or we can choose to travel down the path of fiscal responsibility, balancing the budget, saving Social Security and paying down our debt. Our Republican friends suggests this is a wartime budget and it should be, but is it right to ask young men and women in uniform to fight this war and then come home and ask their generation to pay for it? I think not. On at least four occasions since 1999 this House has voted overwhelmingly to put the Social Security Trust Fund in a lockbox, pledging never to use it again to cover the other expenses of government. If any corporate officer in America raided their employee's retirement fund they would be guilty of a felony and locked up for a very long time, but here in Washington, after promising never to do it again, the Republican leadership has presented us a budget that, without apology and without remedy, raids the Social Security Trust Fund. This is the wrong choice for America and I urge my colleagues to vote no on this irresponsible budget.”