Ron Kind: “Just another point in regards to the Social Security program. What we are going to hear is that we are just borrowing a…”

“Just another point in regards to the Social Security program. What we are going to hear is that we are just borrowing a little bit from the Social Security trust fund, that roughly 10 percent of the $80 billion tax cut would be financed from the Social Security trust fund. What that means is basically we are going to be collecting payroll taxes from hard-working men and women throughout the country. We are going to be taking those payroll taxes from them and redistributing it into the pockets of selected Americans through this tax cut. It just seems ridiculous to have a tax cut package that will do this. Even if we were to take the entire Social Security trust fund off-budget and not touch any of that money and could stop borrowing from it, it is still not going to solve the long-term challenge that we face with the Social Security program. So even a 10 percent drain from the trust fund is going to make it even more difficult to preserve Social Security well into the future. It is making our job all the harder when we take on the almost daunting challenges that we are going to be facing in the very near future and, that is, trying to find some long-term fixes to preserve the Social Security program. That is another reason why I think this tax cut is misguided.”