Senate Proceeding on Apr 1st, 2009 :: 9:40:40 to 9:44:30
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9:23:35 to 9:42:05( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Coburn

9:40:23 to 9:40:44( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: and if you get fortunate enough to get more than a dollar, make sure you're saving something for the future. we all know that's right. but we don't apply it to the federal government. and so consequently, what will happen is the standard of our grandchildren, we're in

9:40:45 to 9:41:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: the mix, we're at a seminal moment in this country where we're going to become on an equal basis with europe. what's that equal basis mean? that means that the standard of living in this country is getting ready to drop 30% both by what we money that's going to come after that in terms of the inflation

9:41:06 to 9:41:27( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: that's going to devalue everybody else's assets in this country. there's a lot of ways to run this government, but the way we're running it now wouldn't pass mister anywhere in -- pass muster anywhere in anybody's household. nobody would waste, throw 10% of

9:41:28 to 9:41:49( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: their money away every year. people who didn't deserve it. nobody would not make measurements about what they're doing to see if it was working. we need a change. the seminal moment is coming. we may not win the budget battle, but in fact if

9:41:50 to 9:42:05( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Coburn: win the budget battle, the problems are just going to be that more severe. and the debt load that we will carry with this budget, the president's budget, will the next two generations of this countr lifetime.

9:42:06 to 9:42:26( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: and with that, i yield the floor. a senator: the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you. i would like to just briefly discuss two amendments i intend thank the senator from texas for allowing me to speak very briefly.

9:42:10 to 9:45:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lindsey Graham

9:42:27 to 9:42:49( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: the first amendment is 898. it will be a point of order against new mandary spending if fund dips below $5 billion. and there's a lot of talk about this economy and the effects of a recession. they're real. but one of the things we found out a couple of days ago is that the social security trust fund

9:42:50 to 9:43:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: spent more than it took in in february. and the projections for next year are to have a $3 billion surplus. so the day of reckoning that senator coburn was talking about when it comes to social security is upon us even quicker than we thought. everybody thought it would be 2018 when we would pay out more benefits than we collect in taxes.

9:43:11 to 9:43:31( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: but if ts trend continues that's going to be accelerate bid several yea. and what does that mean? that means the longer we delay in finding a fix to social security, the harder the mountain will be to climb. and if we keep putting this off one congress after the next, then the solutions that would get us to solve this here are going to be so draconian, they're going to really hurt

9:43:32 to 9:43:53( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: people that can't afford to be hurt. if we act now, because this problem is getting bigger at a faster pace than anybody anticipated, if we do responsible things now about readjusting benefits for upper-income americans like united states senators, or if we took $10 or less a month when we retired it would bring about #

9:43:54 to 9:44:16( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: 0% -- 70% of the solvency needed to get social security back i balance. do something on the age that is prospective that realizes we all live longer. do something on modernizing the program so you can have savings on top of social security. there are ways to get there. increase revenues by raising the cap to have a transition to make sure that people who live past

9:44:17 to 9:44:38( Edit History Discussion )

Lindsey Graham: 80, the fastest-growing demographic in america, is in many ways is people living past 80 who outlive their 401(k) plans. so we've got a challenge and opportunity in this -- and this amendment says that there will be a budget point of order against any budget when there's not a $5 billion surplus in social security and the second