Ted Deutch Quotes

I think we will begin to see some real efforts made to do things like protecting Social Security and Medicare.

I am in favor of reducing all budget items. But the item I don't want to reduce is the pension expenditure because it affects the weakest part of society.

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.

I think that whether you're on the right or on the left as an economist or as a policy maker, every serious analyst I know agrees that at some point you have to deal with entitlements.

You know, 600,000 millionaires get a Social Security check every month. I think there's enough waste and inefficiency.

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

I'm a conservative, but with a focus on average people. For instance, I support Social Security and Medicare.

I don't believe there's a red state in America where people believe you should cut Medicare, Social Security and veterans' benefits rather than doing away with corporate tax loopholes.

The mortal enemies of Social Security and Medicare are those who, in contempt of the plain arithmetic, continue to mislead Americans that we should change nothing.

And in terms of entitlement reforms, we have to save them from themselves, because if we don't reform social security and we don't reform Medicare, they're going to actually implode.

Nobody wants to pay higher taxes. But do you want your kids to get a good education? You have to pay for that. Do you want Medicare for senior citizens? I do. We have to pay for it.

No one was elected to Congress because he or she promised to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

Social Security is an insurance policy. It's a terrible investment vehicle. Social Security has some great benefits. But it was never meant to be a savings plan. So we need to have a national debate. Should this 12.5 percent that we're contributing all go into a Social Security pool, or should half go into a mandatory savings plan?

Look, of course people are scared of entitlement reform because every time you put entitlement reform out there, the other party uses it as a political weapon against you.

The privatization plan weakens Social Security and threatens our economic security by creating trillions of dollars in new debt.

People were concerned about national security, and that precluded us from having the opportunity to break through on the issues that we cared most about - the economy, education and health care.

Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break.

Strong advocacy for education, health care and worker safety will be indispensable if they are to get their fair share of President Bush's austere budget for the next fiscal year.

I'm gonna keep Social Security without change, except I'm going to get rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse; same thing with Medicare.

When you talk about entitlement programs, it's not just about - it's not about cutting those programs. It is about saving those programs. Those programs are on a path of fiscal unsustainability.

We have an opportunity, but we have an obligation to senior citizens and to the younger people who are entering the workforce today to help ensure that they are going to be able to trust the government to have a workable program that benefits them as well.

The Republicans want to turn Social Security into a “no frills” program. The only problem is that the Republican idea of a frill is eating food.

What should we do with this projected surplus? I have a simple four-word answer: Save Social Security first.

The Social Security System is the one great social policy achievement of the twentieth century.