Alan Simpson: “let me close by saying I agree with my friend and colleague, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, that the assured best way…”

“let me close by saying I agree with my friend and colleague, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, that the assured best way to protect Social Security is to pass the balanced budget amendment, or if you do not like the balanced budget amendment, to force ourselves to balance the budget. That is the one thing and the only thing that will make it possible to pay off those sacred promises to future retirees. I do not see people who like to cast those tough votes. They do not show up. But in any event, let me say again that I find it very unseemly that anyone who refuses to help in that effort will use the looting of Social Security as an excuse not to impose a balanced budget requirement. I hope that all of you will read the Social Security Act for yourself and the sections of it--section 201--and think it over closely, and then read the trustees' report. If we have a more accurate public understanding of exactly how Social Security does, indeed, work, it is my earnest, and yet possibly most naive, belief that the argument over the balanced budget amendment can take place on a more honest and informed basis.”