Jacob J. Lew Quotes

If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.

You cannot tackle Britain's debts without tackling the unreformed welfare system.

In the current law we're seeing Social Security dwindle. And so what we're saying is if we're going to reduce taxes we just want to make sure that there are things within the law that pay for it.

There are no uncontrollable outlays except for debt interest. Outlays are what they are due to legislation.

All the Social Security Trust Fund Money Is Gone!

Social Security is legally prohibited from contributing to the deficit. It cannot use debt to pay out benefits.

We can meet the obligations of Social security and Medicare. If we stay on the path that your party has us on, we'll be in a mountain range of debt and we're gonna face hard choices.

In fact, entitlement spending on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up 54% of federal spending, and spending is projected to double within the next decade. Medicare is growing by 9% annually, and Medicaid by 8% annually.

We do ourselves a disservice when some of us cave to the myth that Social Security somehow drives the deficit.

Despite the state of denial exhibited by most Democrats, Americans all across the nation acknowledge that changes are necessary to preserve Social Security for today's younger workers.

Social Security has not contributed to the deficit problem.

Because Social Security has not contributed to our debt, Americans should be skeptical of any politician who says that benefits Americans have earned must be reduced in order to address our national debt.

Social Security represents an $11 trillion unfunded obligation. And when I say unfunded obligation, I mean we have to come up with $11 trillion at some point to make the system whole.

There is a limit to how much the United States Treasury can borrow.

As a matter of fact, if you do not take into account, as Congressman Ross just stated, the Social Security surplus, our fiscal deficit, ladies and gentlemen, is over $700 billion today.

We should stop having a conversation about cutting Social Security a little bit or a lot.

In my opinion, the president is right to address future funding, even though Social Security will show a surplus through 2018 and will not run out of funds until 2042.

While the feds … leave Social Security off their books, the government's obligation to make benefit payments to current and near-term Social Security recipients is certainly no less real than its obligation to pay interest on its Treasury bonds.

... the Social Security trust fund is not spare money; it is spoken for.

Social Security is on the books. We’ll pay for it as long as we have money or can borrow it.

The payment of Social Security benefits under law have little or nothing to do with the fiscal resources available.

A public debt is a public curse and in a representative government greater than any other.

The Social Security Trust Fund should not be trusted and it is not funded.

When you pay social security taxes, you are in no way making provision for your own retirement. You are paying the pensions of those who are already retired. Once you understand this, you see that whether you will get the benefits you are counting on when you retire depends on whether Congress will levy enough taxes, borrow enough, or print enough money...

The debt ceiling serves no useful purpose.