Paul Ryan: “The $96 billion unified surplus reflects the cash surplus, meaning the amount of overpayments on FICA taxes, payroll…”

“The $96 billion unified surplus reflects the cash surplus, meaning the amount of overpayments on FICA taxes, payroll taxes for Social Security, that gets spent on other government programs that ought to go to Social Security. The interest on top of that is the number that the gentleman from South Carolina is talking about. That reflects past borrowing, past raiding of the Social Security surplus. We would like to fix that, too. We think that is a good start. Let's say from now on if you pay FICA taxes to Social Security, let's not spend it on all these other government programs. So the cash surplus that occurs in 2012, that is what we are talking about with that $96 billion, not the interest on top that reflects all of the past borrowing and raiding of the Social Security trust fund.”