Mike Enzi: “we have been hearing about the Social Security surplus, and I hate for the debate to really revolve around the Social…”

“we have been hearing about the Social Security surplus, and I hate for the debate to really revolve around the Social Security surplus. The Senator from New Mexico, Mr. Domenici, did come up with a marvelous plan last year--the lockbox for Social Security--which has been adopted as one of our budget principles now; we lock up the Social Security surplus. I can't give enough credit to him for his effort, along with those of us who joined him to make that preservation of Social Security. It is extremely important. That continues under this bill. The focus of the bill should be a plan to pay down the rest of the national debt over a specified period of time, just as you do a house payment. Why is this important? Every family in America will understand why that is important. I hear some words around here occasionally that if you have extra money after you do these other things, then you understand you are supposed to pay down your debt. No, that is not how it works, and the American people understand that. If you have a debt, you have a payment you have to make, and you allocate that payment before you do anything else. That is what we are talking about here--responsibility, just as you have in a family, for paying down the national debt. It would come first. It would have to be the first thing we did.”