RE: Request for Projected Debt Levels under Plans

[National Dialogue Moderator <moderator>]

I obviously completely agree with your point.  Unfortunately, we do not have specific estimates of the impact of the Kolbe-Stenholm plan on the national debt.  We have asked the Social Security Administration and Congressional Budget Office analyze the impact of our plan on the national debt, national savings and future tax liabilities.  I will post any response from CBO or SSA on this bill if I recieve it while this forum is still going on.  

Having said that, I feel quite certain that our plan will do more to control the natinal debt than any other plan, because we reduce the burden on general revenues to fund Social Security.  For example, we reduce the amount that the Treasury will have to come up with between 2014 and 2034 by more than $4 trillion.  That reduction will be less money that the Treasury have to come up with through higher taxes, cuts in other programs or higher debt. Both the Clinton plan and the Archer-Shaw plan create new general revenue obligations on top of the existing requirements, which CBO and the SSA actuaries have found will create higher debt.  It is perfectly legitimate to use additional general revenues to fund the current level of benefits but we should realize that the consequences of doing so will be higher debt.  The costs of providing a "free lunch" that suggests we can continue to provide current levels of benefits without raising taxes is higher debt.