Orrin Hatch: “I hear the distinguished Senator, but what he fails to say is that we are continuing that system without any restraint…”

“I hear the distinguished Senator, but what he fails to say is that we are continuing that system without any restraint if we do not pass the balanced budget amendment. I think the Senator from North Dakota, not deliberately, has made several misleading statements, to some of which I would like to respond. He says the balanced budget amendment does not balance the budget if it does not exclude Social Security. Of course he fails to mention that in the long run everyone knows Social Security is going to run huge deficits and that it is not always going to run surpluses. This tends to balance out. If we follow his suggestion, we do nothing but continue the current system. His own President is including Social Security because he has to, because it is part of the overall unified budget. By the time today's children are retiring, Social Security will be running annual deficits of $7 trillion each year. Unless we keep Social Security on the budget and make it work and resolve it, in current dollars, it will be a $7 trillion deficit a year. He also fails to mention that this huge deficit would not count under the Social Security amendment that he supports. The amendment he supports would call this $7 trillion deficit a balanced budget. You talk about hoax; I don't see how anybody can argue that. Yet they do. The fact is, we are in trouble and what are we going to do? Just the status quo?”