Alan S. Blinder Quotes
... the Social Security trust fund is not spare money; it is spoken for.
Commenting on the surplus in the fund:
Alan S. Blinder, Economics Professor, Princeton University, Business Week, July 4, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The chairman’s argument was not legal in nature but based on the market reality of the full faith and credit of the United States in the commitments that have been made.
Although the Professor was often right about this technique, at the time he made this statement, the Clinton administration was actually cutting spending and using much of the revenue to pay for the deficit—just the opposite of what the Professor was worried about. It was successful and the deficit was eliminated and surpluses were projected. However the succeeding administration more closely followed the professor’s pattern and increased spending enormously for serious needs, but also cut taxes, so that we went during the Bush administration from the largest projected surplus in American history to the greatest deficit in American history.
This quotation is attributed to the Senator by hundreds of sources, many very relaiable. This indicates to us that it was a line he used on several occasions. However the Dirksen Center staff has not been able to find the quotation amongst his writings and his radio and television appearances that they have transcripts for.
With entitlement programs, Congress and the Administration have very little control over the annual expenditures because once someone is legally entitled to a benefit, the government must pay it. It is not a matter of discretion but an obligation.
Alan Stuart Blinder is an American economist and the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University who served as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under President Bill Clinton.
