Alan Simpson: “They are using it as an excuse to oppose the balanced budget amendment. This $60 billion figure appears small because it…”

“They are using it as an excuse to oppose the balanced budget amendment. This $60 billion figure appears small because it is an annual figure, a consolidated figure which also includes the disability payments and does not represent the total size of the accumulated Social Security reserves which are supposed to add up to another $2 trillion. They will get to $2 trillion--everybody needs to know that; we all know that--before the big drawdown, the big meltdown, comes. But you know what we always hear about this surplus. ``We don't want this surplus to be counted toward balancing the budget.'' It is said plainly, passionately, and persuasively. I ask you to look at the much larger picture. By the year 2020 we are also facing huge annual operating deficits, meaning that we would have to dip into the principal and the interest in this trust fund, the IOU stack, which I have already shown you is not there and eventually will only come from general revenues at that time. Look at the size, look at the enormity of these promised obligations, all of which we have no possible way of paying unless we raise payroll taxes, and the seniors are telling you to do that to correct the program because they ``ain't paying'' them. Payroll taxes--that is how you get here, and other taxes, to raise them dramatically when the time comes. There is $7 trillion in unfunded liability in the Social Security system alone.…”