Sen. Hutchison Discusses Fiscal Cliff, Entitlement Reform on Senate Floor

We can reform Social Security without cutting core benefits and without increasing taxes on people who are working today.

Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison addressed the need to include entitlement reform in fiscal cliff negotiations on the Senate floor. Excerpts of her remarks are below, or to watch the video, click here.

We can't avoid talking about the long-term because that's what we've been doing that has caused us to reach a fiscal cliff. We've got to look at entitlements. According to Medicare trustees, for instance, Medicare paid $35 billion more to beneficiaries this year than it took in last year in payroll taxes. And its trust funds will be depleted 12 years from now if we don't act to save Medicare in a responsible way.

The other issue that is not being talked about very much at all is Social Security. In 2010 and 2011, Social Security expenditures, the benefits paid to retirees and the disabled, exceeded payroll tax revenue for the first time since 1983. So as a practical matter, we know that the federal government is borrowing to pay the Social Security needs of today.

......

So what can we do? We can act now. We can reform Social Security without cutting core benefits and without increasing taxes on people who are working today.

......

We can do the same thing that President Reagan and Tip O'Neill did coming together and acknowledging that people live longer and they work longer. We can do those things and fix this issue in a responsible way.

RESOURCES:
RELEASE: SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON INTRODUCES REVISED SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM BILL