Alan Simpson: “The issue is that you cannot hide something that is $360 billion a year and pretend that you are doing something to…”

“The issue is that you cannot hide something that is $360 billion a year and pretend that you are doing something to "balance the books." That does not mean that we are then going to "raid" or "loot" the Social Security System. The constitutional amendment does not in any way injure Social Security, because the trust fund goes into T-bills or notes or obligations regardless. Regardless, the Social Security money still has to be raised in the future out of general revenue. That is what the trustees are telling us. Somebody said, what about the interest? I heard that one. Mr. President, 87 percent of the money that comes in comes from payroll taxes. About 9 percent comes from interest. That is all there is. In the year 2012, you will have to take the notes and go back to the Government and say, "There is not enough payroll money coming in this month. So we are here to cash these in." That is when the double hit comes that we described.”